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Hello,
I am due for a court hearing soon and I've never been through this process before and I am petrified and it's on my mind 24/7.
Long story short my partner was being awkward with time spent with my daughter so I wanted to be reasonable and meet down the middle however I didn't like the place she was staying with my daughter as the agreement was to go to her uncle's house where there was room until she found a place which I would of helped with, however she went to her mothers house which has 8 to 10 people living in a 3 bedroom house and its not a fit place for my daughter.
Whilst in this house she has almost broke her leg which was done by another child and another child there is violent towards her and I have proof from my ex partner that he's like this and done it to my daughter. So when my daughter was staying over my house I was a little emotional because it was the first night she stayed with me and I did not like the situation she is in (house wise). I messaged my ex partner to discuss the matter and she did not answer so then I said "Until you find a place to live I will keep our daughter over night". This was a way to give her some time to sort herself out living wise as our daughter has come from a peaceful environment to a loud and busy house.
My daughter was asleep and she knew she was asleep as I sent a picture previously saying goodnight mummy, I was just closing my eyes and I heard a loud bang and a door slamming, she's coming up the stairs to me and my initial response by the way she was moving towards me that she is going to stop at nothing to snatch our daughter out of bed (Not a good thing to do for to a 1 year old) so I held on to her at the top of the stairs and tried to drag her away. I then let go as she was not stopping and she took our daughter and shouted "see you in court", when she said this I thought she meant the civil court so I took a few minutes to calm down and come to terms with what happened and phoned the police to report how she's come into the house and took her and they claimed its a civil court matter so the next day I proceeded with family courts as I knew it would go that way.
I then sent her a message that I will come round hers to discuss the situation with our daughter visiting arrangements and suggested mediation, the type of person she is I set audio recordings in my pocket with my phone and was presented with a police officer at her door and he told me to go home and he will interview me. 2 hours later I was arrested... It's now in court for Common Assault and I have not denied that I have held onto her and this was in self-defense and to defend my daughter from being traumatised.
I have never had any convictions, just finished University and achieved the highest grades in the year and managed to get a great job. In the past we've had one drunken argument which she did call the police as she was drunk and over reacted and it was left at that and nothing came of it.
She has agreed that I can see my daughter if I get a court order which is in the process, I have a log of messages to prove that I didn't
1) Kick her out the family house, offered her an alternative
2) The child has hurt my daughter that lives in the house
3) My daughter has hurt her leg and she's being sent to a bone specialist as it's still not better whilst in that house
4) The police have a record that I rang after the incident
5) She left scratch marks on my leg
Should I be worried? She has a witness and this witness is a family member - I really don't want this to ruin my career as I am the most chilled out person.
Whilst in custody she has taken everything out the house and even gone as far as ripping family photos and taking her face out of them which upset me because we may not be together but at the end of the day those photos are memories we had as a family when the times were good.
Hi there
As it’s a criminal court I’m hoping that you have a solicitor defending you.
As you don’t have a criminal record and it’s a first offence, the court may look favourably on it... it’s more a domestic incident really.
The best you can do is to show remorse, explain the mitigation, and the stress of worrying for your child. It might be helpful to mention that whilst you were in custody she entered the family home and removed everything.
All the best
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