[Solved] How many people can relate to my experience?

I am writing to give my experience of the last three years of my life. From divorce to care proceedings.

Three years ago, I separated from and divorced my former wife, our daughter was just 2 years old at the time. Unfortunately, and is all too common, I was unlawfully denied access to my daughter for no other reason than my former wife was trying to hurt me. I spent the preceding 10 months trying to negotiate via lawyers and the courts to what eventually became a weekend contact arrangement. Prior to separation I spent a larger proportion of the week caring for our daughter and therefore had a very strong relationship with her. The unfortunate aspect of the legal system is that it favours presidents and ones that can be proven, however they came about. As I was initially offered nothing, anything was classed as an improvement despite what previously existed.

Six months into this new arrangement, I witnessed suspicious bruising to my daughter which was ultimately safeguarded and lead to care proceedings. The Nursery and I had witnessed these marks and I hadn’t had contact for over a week, this contact was a car journey. Despite this the local authority saw fit to remove our daughter from both parents and put her into care for 9 months whilst the court process ran.

As can be imagined, the stress and trauma of having a child removed in such a situation where you know you are innocent of any wrong doing leaves you feeling helpless. I had very good legal representation but nevertheless, the local authority was not willing to remove me, the Circuit Judge even stated within the first month that the Father should not be within the pool of potential perpetrators as it was implausible that 2 injuries were inflicted by two different people at different ends of the week.

Throughout the case I was allowed supervised contact with my daughter for a few hours per week whilst my interaction was observed by Social workers. The reports I subsequently received were all positive and referred to my very strong bond and parenting ability. When the Section 7 report was released it referred to the positivity of my daughter residing with myself and partner. It also references my former wife and mother of my daughter in a somewhat negative light. There was heavy criticism of her ability to parent, relationship with our daughter and wider social issues within her family including her living arrangements.

Throughout the hearings very strong arguments were put forward for me to be removed and our daughter returned to my care. Unfortunately, these were ignored by the local authority, instead preferring a child stayed in care. At this stage the judge was not able to overrule. What did become evident later in the case was that I would never be removed. Preferring blame was equal. This ultimately meant any future children would be at risk of removal. I therefore had a Barrister tasked with removing me ultimately at the cost of justice.

The local authority lost control of the case which had already overrun by three months and effectively collapsed it resulting in everything returning to status quo within a week. The Local authority, Social workers, Guardian and Judge all had the opportunity to place a child with the more capable parent. They chose not to.

There were many ‘professionals’ involved with this case but very few of them were putting the needs of a child first. Policy and procedure seem to overrule common sense.