Woman who lost custody of children has expert’s evidence overturned

[IwantToRetire]

A mother has won a landmark legal battle to overturn the evidence of an unregulated psychologist that resulted in her losing custody of her daughters.

For the last five years, Sarah* has only been allowed to see her children under strict supervision once a fortnight after Melanie Gill told a family court judge she was a “narcissist” who had alienated her kids from their father.

As a result, the judge ordered that the girls should live with their dad – a decision made against the advice of a social worker and despite allegations by the children that he had mistreated them.
The success of the case to disregard the evidence – which was supported by our reporting – could open the door to challenges to other decisions influenced by Gill, an unregulated expert believed to have given evidence in hundreds of family court cases.

Article continues at https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025-10-23/mum-who-lost-custody-of-children-has-experts-evidence-overturned

I'm not surprised but saddened by this. I've had it loads, fighting wrong assumptions by professionals.

This is terrible. There must be scores of other parents who've gone through similar situations.

Fucking hell i have been called as an expert witness many moons ago in family proceedings and came across this individual early doors in her career.

she was appointed by social services.

Her opposite commissioned by the mother’s counsel was Elizabeth Gillchrist.

I was inserted as a DV expert.

the judge was unhappy that we disagreed with each other, i posited that the mother may not have had learning difficulties and that PTSD was not tested as mothers problem.

we were ordered to gather over our lunch, which we did.

Gill looked entirely shocked that i asserted that DV was not confined to working class people at that lunch.

She was in my opinion a middle class twit so am over joyed her credibility is taking dent

The quality of some court experts is shocking, even regulated professionals. The appeal to authority is extremely prevalent, especially when the person up against it may be socially disadvantaged / less educated / mental health etc.

Unfortunately, it’s not entirely surprising. Although hundreds of cases? Thats affecting so many people.

This whilst horrific for those involved is good news especially with the changes to the children's act removing the assumption of contact with both parents (including where 1 is found to be abusive) is always in the best interest of the child and new guidance finally recognising that children seeing their mother abused by their father is child abuse too, may finally start to fix the system and put children's needs before adults wants.

There was a MNHQ thread some months ago (could have been last year) asking for our experiences of the family crt system and it was a harrowing read with the crts ignoring the most horrific abuse to mothers and granting access because the children weren't the ones abused and it was deemed irrelevant. There was so many accounts of abused women who were just trying to protect their dc being accused of PA it was honestly rage inducing. The other thing that stood out reading the thread was just how shit CAFCAS are.
I'll try and find that thread

This is the thread its hard reading

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_campaigns/5180070-mnhq-here-we-need-your-help-meeting-with-the-minister-for-victims-and-vawg?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Melanie Gill is infamous.
She is a menace and I would dearly love to see her punished for her incompetence and arrogance which has caused misery to so many women and children.

Had never hear of her but found this https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025-03-22/how-melanie-gill-became-a-leading-authority-on-parental-alienation

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15227741/Psychologist-advice-led-dozen-children-removed-mothers-evidence-thrown-custody-case.html

How was she trusted and allowed to destroy so many families?

Amazing how an ultra woke pink-hair is actually a handmaid for abusive men. No surprise there.

I was totally shocked when I saw her photo.

why the hell are courts relying on evidence from an unregulated psychologist in the first place?

@Randomer75 She has the pink hair but not the politics. Instead of calling herself a femiist while centring men (standard danger-haired libfem position) she's openly hostile to feminism (despite obviously benefiting from those social & economic improvements feminism won for women). She has a long history of actvism in the Conservatives, including standing for election. AFAICT, she just glommed onto a lucrative market for a heap of horsemanure & her 3rd class degree.

Is she trans? I’m not judging her for that, but gives important context given the hostility to feminism and centreing men.

This is absolutely horrific! Those poor girls and their mother. The father claims that there was no evidence to support the mother’s allegations - so basically he’s saying his children are liars. What a fucking monster.

It’s unbelievable that someone with a third class psychology degree has this power. And gets paid ten grand to boot.

I wondered that too

Why do you think she's ultra woke? That's not my understanding at all.

She seems to have a lot of ties to father’s rights groups and conservative groups.

how on earth was she allowed to have influence in the courts if she’s not qualified or registered?

like how does that work, does the father’s team just hire whoever they like to give “evidence” or is she appointed by the court?

@Quantumfisiks Not AFAIK. I've been aware of her for a few years, never heard a dickiebird to that effect. Honestly, I don't think so, the parental alienation grift has been going on a long time & she's a main chracter. Surely goss like that would have leaked by now?

Thanks @HildegardP. I did wonder as there wasn’t a thing online suggesting that.

the former life as a music promoter also made me wonder.

I’m horrified the way the court system works. How can anyone without adequate qualifications be considered an expert?

I didn’t realise that ‘psychologist’ isn’t a protected title in the UK, though pretty much every specific title including the word is protected. That seems very risky.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-gill-1b569410/?originalSubdomain=uk
Is this her - misrepresented by media - just done a conference in Toronto.

There are quite a few videos of Melanie on the internet.

The family courts are terrifying.

I understand that it can’t be ‘open justice’ as such, to protect the privacy of the children involved, but there seems to be absolutely no recourse or accountability for bad decisions, and sometimes outright lies.