[Solved] Cafcass S7-Court appeal against suspended contact

Re: Cafcass S7- Court appeal against suspended contact

I just wanted to give an update on my appeal against suspended contact after allegations from my ex to cafcass after I re-applied to court..... I am hoping this may help others out there?

Here's how it goes:
2011: I had a contact order granted after a year long court process.
2011 - 2013 - Childs mum took the p#ss with holidays cutting out half my yearly contact.
2013 - Re-applied to court to make a new contact order to replace the old (opposed to enforcing old). In doing this I wanted to add more control and give myself fairer control over my time with our daughter. In doing so like in all applications.

What followed after my application to court:

Cafcass interview:
Cafcass interviewed both myself and mother over the phone. This is where it all went wrong!! She stated in the interview many false accusations that reflected badly on myself, including violence, drinking, fighting and the general being a bad dad.

Cafcass pre-court report made:
Cafcass then did the pre-court report from these interviews and due to the accusations they recommended that a full section-7 report is made to investigate and that contact between me and my daughter should be suspended. This 'pre-court' report was received in the post one day before court. (For those that do not know, a section-7 report can take 13weeks!).

The court date:
In court the next day the legal clerk spoke to my ex then myself stating that cafcass requested a section-7 report is made, I had no opportunity to ask for interim contact and the advice was you have to wait!!! Obviously my ex was very happy.
BUT...As I am a good dad and want to fight for my rights as a father I pushed for a contesting hearing to contest the 'pre-court' report and no-contact in front of magistrates judges. Just to added this request was under protest from the legal clerk who advised its very unlikely I would get access and huffed and puffed at my request!!!
So, An original date was scheduled two weeks later, however the week before court my ex wrote in and cancelled saying she could not get the time off work (predicted). The court date was then giving for 3 weeks after that.
FYI: For the contesting hearing both myself and my ex had to prepare a statement that was directly in contest(or support) to the cafcass pre-court report, obviously I stated many facts and my ex added more lies to her rabbit hole!! (I would be happy to help anyone with this kind of statement).

At the contesting hearing:
So I turned up in the morning extremely nervous of the day ahead, I took my sister and a close friend who could be potential witnesses, my sister is also a registered childminder so I thought this may help. (FYI: if anyone does do this, the witnesses MUST provide a pre-court statement. This allows the judges to read before court. Also bring copies of your statement and witnesses statements to court) What usually would happen in court is cross examination of what shes said and what you’ve said, so you might sit in a witness box to be asked questions and vice versa (so be prepared for this). This is NOT what happened in my case, much simpler!: The three magistrates walked in, all of them having read both pre-court statements. The immediate response was ‘’the child should be allowed access to the father’’ and they think it could be damaging to the relationship of child and father if not. I was extremely happy from this point!

To cut a long story (a bit) shorter:
I have been given an interim contact order until the next court hearing (That’s the hearing to discuss the section-7 report) The interim contact is literally 7 hours on a Saturday but its better than none!

Point:
Cafcass, how do they have the power to stop contact without it being reviewed by magistrates court first?

I will update when I go back to court and hopefully give some advice on my experience of section-7 report process and court results!