I'll try not to drip feed:
Ex and I split up 2 1/2 years ago, we have a 3 year old DD. We've been going through the family court system for nearly 2 years. my ex was physically and emotionally abusive and my DD and I had to live in refuge for 6 months.
At the moment the current contact order is for every other week , 2 hours supported contact in a contact centre.
My ex has had to engage in a perpetrator programme as part of the contact order.
My ex has also had issues with drugs and alcohol to which he has always minimised or flat out denied. I have tried to make the court believe me that he is unstable until I am blue in the face but he is such a good manipulator that for example, when I requested they do a drugs test he admitted to smoking 'a small amount' of weed and so the court said well theres no need to test him for class A drugs because why would he has been honest about weed so why would he lie about anything else??!
Anyway, contact had been going well I suppose and he always turned up (however we were in contact a lot, and at times he has tried to worm his way back into my life, and regrettably, I have slept with him on about 3 occasions). Then all of a sudden he decides that he can't bare to communicate with me any more and starts being either late or not showing up for contact at all. My DD has noticed the change and the last time we went to the contact centre she cried and said 'mummy please stay with me , I want to go home'. Well, he didn't turn up anyway. later that week I get bombarded with information from him as he now feels he needs to reveal that in fact, he has been smoking cannabis pretty much the whole time (except for a 3 month period prior to knowing he would be drug tested), has spent time as a full blown alcoholic and also used cocaine on several occasions. In addition to this he told me h has had sexual relations with other women , including a prostitute . So I will need to be STD tested (he told me hadn't slept with anyone else since we split).
My reaction to all this, is basically, I don't want him anywhere near my daughter again. I feel he has made 0 effort to try and change his life so he can see her. All he has done is lie and let her down. He's put himself and drugs first. AIBU to feel his way? I don't think the court will consider unsupervised contact now, and my ex has even owned up and said in his own words:
"I am totally failing to meet the basic emotional (and other) requirements that it takes to offer a young child a stable parent, and a stable life, something that is affecting DD's emotional health" (this is in email to my solicitor).
I feel he will never change and despite how badly he treated me I have tried everything to encourage him to be a dad to our daughter. I can't believe I fell for it once again. But I whole heartedly believe that he will let her down and hurt her if he is allowed to remain a part of her life. My DD needs stability and I can provide that on my own.
Do you think the court will see my point>? Has anyone else been through similar ? And AIBU?
Sorry mega long post...
As a side point: Does anyone know if he could face criminal charges for lying in court?