Fact Finding won and vindictive ex excoriated by Judge! Need advice on next steps!

[mikeayo1891]

Hi guys. Excited to let you all know that won my fact find. I was a LIP against a very vicious, lying, scheming and vindictive ex who had made false and fabricated allegations including DV, rape, sexual molestation, threat to kill, religious radicalisation, threat to stab child with a knife etc. And this was against some young rabid barrister with a sinister agenda. In all there were about 12 main allegations in total with several sub allegations underneath each allegation. The court did appoint for me a Qualified Legal Representative (QLR) who I provided with my prepared questions for cross-examination. The only reprimand I got was posing as a solicitor and using a tracing company to trace ex's address in order to trace where my child lives. Judge said that it was unwise and would have caused ex to feel anxious and that I should have made the request of child's through the court. I apologised for this. All other allegations apart from this was found to be unproven or exaggerated and judge only fell short of calling some of them outright lies. They definitely were lies and fabrications to suit a narrative.

Below is a summary of what the Judge said in his Judgement - the Mother was not a credible witness and exaggerated. The Father was calm and his evidence was credible. And the Mother had sadly conveyed her negativity to the child.

The next step is an enforcement hearing (as mother had already breached interim order for me to have face to face contact with child once a week) in a few weeks time to discuss and agree/vary the interim contact. Court has also ordered for Cafcass to use the findings of fact to undertake a section 7 report (within 23 weeks) to investigate and see how contact can be promoted as child at the moment does not want to see or talk to his father.

The next hearing will be a dispute resolution hearing after the section 7 report has been completed.

Just to encourage anyone who needs it. It is doable but you need to make your response to allegations very clear and point to your evidence and respond calmly to cross-examination and direct the judge to the evidence and inconsistencies and lies in the ex's account. The burden of proof is on them.

Now I am required to send a position statement to the court (ahead of the Enforcement Hearing) on what kind of interim contact I would like pending the completion of the section 7 report. I need advice on what I should request in light of the fact find. Bearing in mind that mother has moved almost 4 hours away from me under the guise of fleeing DV. Guys I need your advice on whether contact centre, community, supervised, overnight stay etc will be the best at this stage. Bearing in mind that child has been alienated against me.

Not yet Uhuru as I still haven't won my case yet but this is a massive weight off my shoulder. What would you suggest I do or request at the enforcement hearing for interim contact that would help me get a very good final order in about 6 months time when we eventually go for the Dispute Resolution Hearing and potential Final Hearing?

 

[DadLad]

well done!! Maximum respect!

Part of the LIP family!!

 

[Oneofmany]

Nice one brother, really good to hear

 

[bujanin]

Big up yourself that's an achievement. The S7 and DRH are potentially quite a long way off though. Will you have any contact in the interim?

 

[Ash]

Well done Sorry I've taken out the quote from the Judgement again and briefly summarised it. You can't really quote from a Judgement online without permission from the Judge!

 

[mikeayo1891]

Big up yourself that's an achievement. The S7 and DRH are potentially quite a long way off though. Will you have any contact in the interim?

I have an interim contact order that has been breached by ex since April 2024. An Enforcement Hearing is fixed for next week. Judge has asked me to write a position statement on what kind of contact I would like whether it should be in a contact centre, supervised, not supervised, community etc.

 

[abbatwara]

Brilliant results! That is a great deal of weight off your shoulders now.. One step closer

 

[JonLofthouse]

I have an interim contact order that has been breached by ex since April 2024. An Enforcement Hearing is fixed for next week. Judge has asked me to write a position statement on what kind of contact I would like whether it should be in a contact centre, supervised, not supervised, community etc.

Mike, Just wanted to give you a bit of a heads up. If your ex is playing any sort of games like mine just has. She broke the access order 15 times so I filled for an enforcement order, she was served and 2 days before the hearing I received notice by the way of a C1A/C2 abuse accusation against my son.. the justice system is so afraid of this word and requested that I only see my son with an independent social worker present during my visits with my son.
I had the access order in place since 2020 she had never reported any concerns until 2 days prior to the Enforcement hearing date. they have control and dads have no support we are monsters/animals. If I had never gone to the court system for help I would still be seeing my son as per the original access order give or take the what my sons mother would let him do with regards to seeing me. Access orders are not worth the paper they are written on she has had 3 separate warnings now from a judge.....and everything cost me because she gets legal aid because she used the word abuse!

 

[Ash]

I have an interim contact order that has been breached by ex since April 2024. An Enforcement Hearing is fixed for next week. Judge has asked me to write a position statement on what kind of contact I would like whether it should be in a contact centre, supervised, not supervised, community etc.

Have you done the position statement yet? I can have a look over it if you want.

@JonLofthouse really sorry to hear this happened to you. Some of these ex's do play the system. It can help if you can afford to use a direct access barrister for hearings with serious things like that so they can persuade the Judge this is unreasonable. However, yes, they play on the safe side but that supervised time should have been temporary.

 

[mikeayo1891]

Have you done the position statement yet? I can have a look over it if you want.

@JonLofthouse really sorry to hear this happened to you. Some of these ex's do play the system. It can help if you can afford to use a direct access barrister for hearings with serious things like that so they can persuade the Judge this is unreasonable. However, yes, they play on the safe side but that supervised time should have been temporary.

Yeah. I managed to get the position statement done alright. Got a senior judge who was right on top of her game. Despite the best efforts of the ex and her solicitor to keep bringing up the same allegations that has been unproven in the fact find, the Judge was not buying it. She strongly reprimanded the ex for breaching the interim court order. She did not accept the ex's excuses that my child did not want to speak with me via video calls and said that she should have allowed face to face contact as was stated in the court order. Ex tried to say she sought advice from GP and Social Services who advised her to stop contact with father but judge said that that advise would have been on the premise that dad was abusive but as there was no finding of fact proving abuse then any GP or Social service advice would be moot.

The judge then told the mother that it was important for contact to start asap and asked mother what kind of contact she is proposing. Mother insisted that there should be no direct contact as child would be distressed and traumatised seeing me. Judge saw how strongly averse ex was to contact and saw her negative attitude. Judge said that its not up to ex to decide whether or not contact is allowed and that its up to the judge to decide and that since there was no abuse found contact has to happen immediately. Judge was very impressed with how detailed my contact proposal was and even asked if I had any legal training. lool. She said that I had clearly put a lot of thought and research into my position statement and proposals unlike the ex who had legal representation. Judge however said she wont be able to order ICFA as this is usually done by Cafcass after a Section 7. Long story short, I managed to get one step further in the process. Her was what was ordered:

Mother must arrange a contact centre near her location within 1 week (if not done, father should make the arrangement), Father to have contact with child every fortnight for 1 hour at the contact centre for 4 sessions, then the contact should increase to 2hrs every fortnight until a Review Hearing in April. Judgement from fact find should be shared with contact centre to better support child.

As per my request, Judge agreed to apply a penal notice on the contact order when I explained all her breaches and when Judge saw her negative attitude to contact in court.

Without asking her, Judge also made appoint to reserve case to herself due to mother's attitude. So she will be the same Judge reviewing case in April.

A separate Dispute Resolution Appointment also fixed for after May when Cafcass would have completed the section 7.

Didn't get all that I want but I am more than happy that the court is seeing the ex for who she really is. If she breaches again the Penalty will surely kick in.

The trick is that when deliberate breaches happen, never waste time to apply for enforcement. Do it immediately and ask for a penal notice! Don't wait and wait hoping that ex will see reason. Just give it one or two attempts and apply for enforcement immediately. Even if u dont get it first time, you'll get it second time. That put ex on defensive.

 

[Ash]

Well done. Sounds like a good Judge and ex showed herself up. Hopefully a penal notice will deter her from breaching the current order. A penal notice doesn't actually "kick in" on it's own. There has to be an application to apply it to send her to prison - which rarely occurs because they don't like sending Mothers to prison - but hopefully it's a good deterrant.

 

[mikeayo1891]

Well done. Sounds like a good Judge and ex showed herself up. Hopefully a penal notice will deter her from breaching the current order. A penal notice doesn't actually "kick in" on it's own. There has to be an application to apply it to send her to prison - which rarely occurs because they don't like sending Mothers to prison - but hopefully it's a good deterrant.

Yes i got a good judge but more importantly i clearly provided a table/log containing columns titled Court Order made, Date, Actions/Breach, Evidence of Breach in bundle etc. Then i brought the Judge to the evidence and made it clear that ex has a habitual disdain and disregard for court order. That way the Judge jad to pay attention and was bit pissed. She asked the ex counsel to ask her client if felt that Court orders do not apply to her. Thats the tactic that i used. Just asked if i had any legal training because i clearly impressed her.

 

[Peanut 21]

Ex tried to say she sought advice from GP and Social Services who advised her to stop contact with father

This is a common theme I think. They triangulate someone else in and say they told them what to do. There's no responsibility.
It sounds like you had a really strong judge who was sick of the bs.

 

[mikeayo1891]

This is a common theme I think. They triangulate someone else in and say they told them what to do. There's no responsibility.
It sounds like you had a really strong judge who was sick of the bs.

Yeah. Very strong senior no-nonsense judge. I looked up her profile just before the hearing and saw how experienced she is. I was already feeling confident before the hearing