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So the cafcass report arrived before court proceeding and the ex has torn right into me.I can't believe she is being like this just because I moved on. She has said:
I am violent
I smack our sons bottom hard
My son has gone home with finger prints on him and now don't wanna see me.
I am an alcoholic
I take my son to pub with me and now my new partners kids
I take a hip flask to work
I have tried to kill myself
I have took overdoses
I self harm
All of which are complete lies.
I have to have a liver function test now.
A medical with GP to prove I am of sound mind
Only supervised contact is recommended 🙁
On the letter it said they can't find any other families that I am linked with but are doing level 2 checks and will contact the council to find out my partners details and contact her.
Can they do checks like this? Not that I am concerned about anything just don't think it's fair getting my partner involved.
I now understand the saying " there's nothing worse than a woman scorned".
The CAFCASS report? Or safeguarding letter? If your upcoming hearing is the first hearing, then that is a safeguarding letter and CAFCASS have given their recommendations to the court. If you've already had one or two hearings, this is likely to be a Section 7 report.
Either way, if your partner has nothing to hide, I would personally give permission for her to be safeguarded, it will just go further to dispute the mother's claims, Your partner won't become a part of these proceedings, just have checks done.
Courts (especially magistrates) generally go with CAFCASS rec's unless you can challenge these effectively.
To speed the process up, if you have any professional or medical evidence to dispute the mother's claims, you could take this with you to the hearing and ask the judge for permission to file the evidence to assist proceedings. If permission isn't given you can ask to be allowed to file a statement of evidence.
If the court ask that you undergo testing or seek proof from your GP, just jump through the hoops, appear reasonable and shut all the mother's lies / claims down.
Bit of an update...
I bottled it and couldn't face court, maybe I am weak but I couldn't do it.
Out of the blue I had a voice message left on my answer phone from a social worker who wanted to speak to me.
Why would they want to speak to me? I wonder whats gonna happen.
I thought , well hoped one day the ex would get bored and contact me to say I can have my son weather it's months or years down the line. I do have a feeling she is gonna create as much trouble as possible.
It's tough going this being a dad business is.
Hope ur all well
Hi
How long ago was the court hearing? Did you just not turn up? If you didn't attend, I think that was somewhat of a mistake if I'm being honest but I can understand that it would feel overwhelming.
If the court hearing took place without you, I can only guess that the court ordered a Section 7 report to be undertaken in your absence and that CAFCASS are trying to contact you to get this underway.
Have you had an order sent through from the court yet? Whatever happened at the hearing should be put down into an order / directions and you should receive a copy within 7-10 days of the hearing.
If you want to stop the proceedings, you would have to apply to the court to do that. If you don't it's likely they will go ahead without you and a final order will be made in your absence.
I would strongly advise that you seek some legal advice or support asap otherwise the court could likely make an order for no contact which would be difficult to overturn in the future. If you are able to get some assistance and write to the court laying out your reasons for, and apologies for not attending, the court should consider this.
It's worth contacting either of these organisations for assistance.
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