Cafcass, concerns about falsely claiming domestic abuse and coercive behavior against me the father. Also using my ME as a weapon to try to get the court to say I’m unfit to parent our children.

[Paulde]

So this is a bit of a long explanation but I need some advice and clarification on how Cafcass decides.

Basically I was accuse of coercive behavior mainly accused of looking at her phone, I was arrested and then my wife dropped all the charges before I even got out of the custody suite. I was put on bail until the police arrived at the NFA, my wife then empty the rented house completely sold everything and abducted our children and completely disappeared from the area. Taking the children away from the school they were attending for 3 years and went into a women’s refuges facility. It took me 5 months to find them and had to go to court to get an order for all the passports to be seized as we were concerned the mother would try to go back to China.

I now have a court date in August to fight to see our children as it’s been 9 months now without any contact, the judge ordered a safeguarding report from Cafcass because of the false allegations made against me.

Cafcass has send my lawyers her response and again it’s all false allegations, no one has seen any evidence whatsoever.

I found out my Chinese wife was working as a sex worker in China and posting videos online with unknown men. Also with the children asleep in the same room while this was happening.

This is the reason why the mother fled with our children, she is also trying to get a indefinite leave to remain in the UK and using domestic abuse as a way to get public funds and free housing.

My question is I have ME and the doctors are now saying that I have C- PTSD due to years of trauma from the mother who has completely turned herself into the victim. Will this affect my chances of having our children live with me and do Cafcass actually look at the evidence before they write the report to the courts. Or should I tell them that I have online evidence of child neglect and possibly abuse by the mother.

I am a bit confused about her participating in on line porn in China with the children present, since you state she relinquished her passports to the solicitor to prevent her leaving the UK. (They are not usually “seized”)

I think it would be a good idea to refrain from accusing her of wanting to stay in the UK by using DV as a way in given she has three children, with you it is not unreasonable to not want to be removed back to China.

If you are disputing DV then the court will have to make a finding of fact as to whether this is true or not.

In any event if you have concerning evidence you should hand it to your solicitor.

Your medical condition should not have a bearing on the CAFCAS report unless there is a safeguarding issue.

IANAL.

§

Thank you very much

Cafcass usually talk to the children, often at school with a trusted adult present, so that neither parent can influence what they say. They write a report with recommendations, which the judge may accept in their entirety or in part, after hearing what the parents have to say.

I suggest you make your solicitor aware of any evidence you have and follow their advice.

Firstly, a safeguarding letter is part of every child arrangements order application - it's not unusual, and it's not 'ordered due to 'false allegations made against you'. It's a brief letter setting out what each you and the mother have told the cafcass officer, and the brief initial safeguarding checks cafcass carry out in all cases with police and social services, followed by brief recommendations that cafcass thinks the court needs to help them decide the case.

A s7 welfare report can be ordered by a judge, it's more in depth than the safeguarding letter, and will cover a lot more information from both you and the mother, the kids, the schools/nurseries, the police, social services and any other professionals involved in order to make their determination on what to include in their report. The court can also request police disclosure. Perhaps you meant a s7 report.

Secondly, a couple of issues that immediately jump out from your post:

1. If your wife was going to disappear to China with the kids, she could have done so very easily in the five months before you 'found her and went to court'.

2. That claim also contradicts her wanting to use DV to be able to stay in the UK.

I know this isn't what you were asking about, but it's the sort of thing that the court will ultimately look at (veracity and consistency of claims) when determining any allegations either one of you makes. The application to 'seize' passports could be seen as controlling.

She says you were coercive - you claim she 'dropped the charges' - that's not a thing in English law, however, she may have been too frightened to continue with her allegations, and told the police she didn't want to cooperate - the police still kept you on bail until deciding NFA. You say you found out she was undertaking risky behaviour with the kids in the same room, yet you appear to not have done anything about it at the time, but now wish to raise it, some 9 months after all this started, during the CAO proceedings. These types of inconsistencies are what the court will look at, because a good lawyer will draw them directly to the judge's attention.

As a PP said, the court will order a fact finding hearing if there is a necessity for it, which will be determined on whether or not the findings would impact on the decisions being made for the kids.

Be aware that cafcass don't do the 'deciding'; the safeguarding letter has minor recommendations on what the court might want to do next. A s7 welfare report, being more in depth, will have recommendations on whether spends time with/lives with orders should be made, and how and in what pattern, but it is still the court that decides, and generally, if there is a dispute, that decision will only take place at a final contested hearing during which there is likely to be cross examination of both parties and the cafcass officer.

Your kids haven't been 'abducted', they're still in the country. Your health issues won't have any impact unless it makes you unable to take care of the kids during any time allocated to you.

The other thing to be aware of is just because the police ultimately NFA'd the matter, the family court is not bound by that, and can make its own findings.

They seized the passports because we had concerns that the mother would take them out of the country. She left the children for 18 months and went back to China so I was the sole carer. The DV was premeditated as a way of gaining housing and public funds. The online activities were only discovered after the mother had abducted the children after some information was obtained.

Thank you for your advice, my Solictor is aware of the situation, I didn’t know that the children can be talked to at school which I think is a much better way to not confuse them and put them through any more stress and trauma.

Thank you for your detailed response, I do see the contradiction with the mother abducting the children and taking them out of the country. Against the trying to get indefinite leave to remain. At the time that I was accused I didn’t know what the mother was doing or where the children were, I found out afterwards that she had been suddenly saying to our friends that she was being abused, basically she using the children as pawns to get housing and public funds. When I instructed the solicitor we didn’t have a clue where the mother or children were or if she was still in the country. It was my solicitor who asked me do you think she might try to get out of the country and at the time I wasn’t sure, also we had to go to court to find out where the children were so we could serve the mother papers. The court agreed that the mother could run again and that she was not to be informed and the judge agreed with the solicitor that the mother and children’s passports should be seized and kept by the court.

I only found out about the online activities afterwards, as some information was revealed and I did have a few suspicions after I was arrested looking back at the situation. We couldn’t find the mother or the children and the research of the online behavior was very time consuming to verify everything.

Basically everything was found out afterwards when the mother revealed her true identity and personality. The word narcissist has a lot to do with this situation.

Paul

Yes, I'd concur on the basis of info given, that 'narcissist' probably has a lot to do with this situation.

Fortunately the court will have seen hundreds of similar situations and usually make good decisions. Usually...

Cafcass will only be able to talk to the kids if the court orders a s7 welfare report.