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I have had dealings with CAFCASS over the last 12 months in my access case.
In their report in February 2015 to the court, they accused me of a crime I did not commit, and had no involvement with at all, but was the father of my former partners other child. This was after they had had access to my PNC report and local police report.
I immediately informed them of this error as I have no convictions and this had great bearing on my character portrayal made to the court. They would not retract their statement nor apologize.
I went through the official complaints procedure, and was advised to request my own copies of the PNC report and local searches etc. I did this, and was not mentioned in any way in any reports, the FOI dept at sussex police sent an email stating that I was not mentioned in the incident CAFCASS referred to and as such I couldnt have the information.
So how could CAFCASS accuse me of this crime? Other than by looking at my former partners record and failing to cross check this with my own.
I went back to CAFCASS with all my evidence and they still refuse to withdraw their statement or apologize for being falsely accused.
As I have spent considerable time and energy proving to CAFCASS their mistake, and despite having ample opportunity to retract their statement and issue a formal apology, and due to the damage caused to my access case by this statement on top of the added stress, am I able to take CAFCASS to civil court for defamation?
This is in addition to CAFCASS refusing to acknowledge my former partners arrest for assault on myself, and months of proven psychological abuse and continuing aggression, which concerns me for the safety of my child, which is meant to be their remit. Another ongoing argument.
cheers
Sean
Hi Sean
It's very difficult for you and I must be honest, I've never heard of any civil case brought against CAFCASS.
I do remember past threads about fighting CAFCASS and a gentleman called Brian Hitchcock who helps people having problems with CAFCASS. He is an external Stakeholder for CAFCASS and is involved with Mensaid where I believe he can be reached. Here's a link to their website
www.mensaid.co.uk
They have a number you can call and ask to speak with Brian.
If your case is over you can ask your MP for help and ask for a referral to the Parliamentary Omsbusman.
Best of luck with it.
Here's a link to the old topic about CAFCASS, as you can see it was a couple of years ago but there's also an email address for Brian contained in NJs post.
http://www.dad.info/forum/legal-eagle/25395-disputing-cafcass-report
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