court order for visitation

[justamum84sian]

hello all,
im due in court on Monday with my boys dad. he wants equal visitation but lives more than 4hrs away. he has physically harmed one of my sons before, been arrested for flashing, accused of rape and have recently found out watches his neighbour undressing from my boys window when they are asleep. i have also been told that he holds swinging parties at the house. the police advised us to stop contact and go to court. my ex made the order to the court. i am happy for him to see them as long as it is locally. both boys (9 and11) have requested this also as its too far to travel for a weekend. my relationship with my ex was abusive so I'm dreading facing him in court. all information has been passed on to the police, school, cafcas and social services. i just don't trust them in his care anymore. i want to keep them safe. I'm worried because he presents as a nice man but he's not. also he has a solicitor and I do not. can anybody tell me what I can expect? tia

Why are you “happy” for your sons to see their father if he has physically harmed one of them?
It would be over my dead body or not through want of trying
Why aren’t social services involved if he harmed one of the children? Surely this is a safeguarding issue regardless of his whereabouts

I’m not happy, dad denies it. I have been told there is no proof. My son didn’t open up to me about it until nearly a month later. My boys now both attend therapy session at school.

How is he proposing equal visitation would work when he lives that far away? How is he suggesting he gets them to school? Keep your arguements focused on what's best for children and why. At 9 and 11 will the wishes of the children not be taken into account?

Which one of you moved away ?

If you moved then the court may say that you did that without his permission to frustrate his ability to parent them.

If he moved then he will be told he needs to move back to facilitate contact. As regular 8 hour round trip not in the children's interests.

PPs have missed the point that the father presents a risk, both physical and emotional, to the children.

Forget about who moved away from who. Focus on the risk of harm. The court will want disclosure from the police and from social services (if they have been involved - if they haven't, then why not?) and a report from the children's therapist would assist, though there may be an issue of patient confidentiality.

This will need a full s7 Cafcass report, and the children will have the chance to voice their views to the cafcass officer. I'd only allow supervised contact for now if I were you given the allegations.

Remember though, as it's you making the allegations you have to prove them on the balance of probability.

I didn’t miss these points if you read my post.