ridiculous cafcass report b4 directions hearing

hello,

Last Spring/Summer 2009, my wife who lives elsewhere with the children went to Dubai where her sister lives on a couple of occassions after which she was going to abduct the children there at the end of the summer. I managed to thwart that.

Also, the children have been alienated from me, as per Parental Alienation Syndrome, or Hostile Parenting. Everything she has done seems to me to follow that pattern, and I am convinced that is what it is. I know there are some here who feel PAS is a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I don't agree, and would like to avoid debating that point here, with all due respect, as it will divert focus from my original issues.

What has happened is that I have had to apply for a contact order, which required cafcass to meet the children. Also, as a residency application is also being sought, cafcass have also met both parents.

The children, and their mother, were met around mid-December 2009, and I was met early Feb 2010.

Despite my discussing the alienation with the officer, as well as including it in the report I had filed, the cafcass report that has now been given has made no reference to it!

There is also no reference to the issues of the contact and what the mother has said.

All that has been mentioned in the report is that the children clearly have stated they do not want contact with me, at the moment anyway. The officer has recommended full residecy be awarded to mum because apparently i am of unstable mental health because i have been diagnosed ADHD! Also, she says I should not have contact with the children until I have been psychiatrically assessed! The doctor I see says there is no correlation with ADHD and contact with the children and is willing to write an assessment if asked by solicitor. The contact I do have is to be able to write a note to them every 2 or 4 weeks and to just ask about how they are and how school is etc. I cannot be a part of their life at all.

When I met the cafcass officer, I had told her about the alienation, and she said she is aware of the games that go on in situations such as these, and she will be mentioning that in her report too. BUT SHE HASN'T!! The report she submitted is totally damning to me.

The mother wants to take the children to india during easter, but i have not given my permission as i would like the alienation to be dealt with first, as i beleive the mothers family have had a lot to do with alienating the kids from me. They have applied for permission to take the children out of the jurisdiction.

There is a directions hearing on monday, 1st march 2010, and I only received the cafcass report which is FULL OF FLAWS, on late friday afternoon.

My solicitor says that it is likely the
court may just give the mother residency during the directions hearing and the final hearing may not take place at all. If this happens, then she can take the kids away whenever she wants.

I would like the court to recognise the flaws in the cafcass report, and appoint a PAS specialist psychologist to assess the situation before they go away, and before the residency is granted, and that such decisions be made after considering what the specialist has to say.

Sorry for making the above so long, but I don't know how to make it any shorter!

My queries are;
* is the cafcass report gospel? it has so many flaws in it.
* is it at all possible the cafcass reporter was bribed? do these things happen? I know the other side are very rich, and can be ruthless and money is no ­object­ for them. I'm on legal aid.
* the hearing is in the family division of the court, and i think there will be 3 judges there. It is listed for 1 hour. Is it possible that they would make this decision simply on the cafcass report, without it going to final hearing?
* the report says it was completed on 11th feb 2010, which is when i met the cafcass officer. The children and their mother met her mid-december 2009, i beleive. The report says it was filed on 12th feb 2010. Yet, it was only faxed to my solicitor late friday afternoon (26 feb 2010), and the directions hearing is 1st march 2010 (coming monday), at 10am. This leaves me with hardly any workdays time to prepare a response. Is it possible this was done deliberately by the cafcass officer to help the other side?
*my solicitor described the report as pithy - I can't understand what she means? Anybody got any thoughts on this?
*how can I get the judges to arrange an independant psychologists report to check the PAS
*the children just turned 14(girl) and 12(boy) in last few weeks, although the report was requested by the judge in september 2009, when the children were 13 and 11

I know there's a lot above. There may be stuff I've missed out. But ANY assistance would be very very much appreciated. I really don't think I'm a bad father, and have actually always tried to be a patient and loving parent. Yet, cafcass have given a totally damning report on me. I've seen the children for a total of less than 40 hours since June 2009. So am desperate, to say the least.

Many thanks in anticipation.
from
a papa-v-desperately-missing-his-kids

Papa,

I am so sorry to hear that you are going through this. There are many Dads here whom have experienced similar and some have successfully challenged CAFCASS reporters.

This is your life mate and at a time when you need support this reporter is trashing you. I would register a formal complaint with HO, go to the top, dont waste time with the monkeys.

I agree this reporter is biased, when everyone and their granny is screaming both parents is the best parent, this idiot has rec no contact without seeking further information from GP, Psychologist, relative, senior colleague...from one meeting she has judged you as unfit to be a Dad with contact, not even supervised...just exactly what qualifications does she have. This would be my first question to the Judge on Monday. I dont care what qualifications the Judge or reporter have, unless you acted like a raving or threatenuing loony (which I am sure you did not) to be denied all contact from one meeting is unacceptable.

As I said, its your life they are playing sick games with and the sooner the courts stop entertaining these small minded people the better for our children and society as a whole.

Be as unemotive and assertive as you can be on Monday and let this biased reporter know you will not be subjected to such blatant bias without challenge.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

E

hi Elle

Thanks for your reply and support. Whilst it all makes sense, I'm still confused as to what will happen now. My solicitor told me that its likely the court will take on the CAFCASS officers proposals as the children have voiced very strong opinions that they do NOT want to see me. I have always said they have been alienated and so HAVE to be negative towards me in order to survive in that environment.
Alienation was discussed with the CAFCASS officer and she said she is aware of the type of games that get played in these situations and that she would be mentioning it in her report. Only thing is - SHE DIDN'T! There's nothing there to even touch on alienation and there is nothing there to report on what the mother had to say. Its ALL against me.That's why I'm wondering whether the judges will be willing to question the reports authenticity and at least not grant residency and also it would be great if they will recommend a specialist?

Any ideas/thoughts ?

Cheers

PapaMissingKids wrote:


My solicitor told me that its likely the court will take on the CAFCASS officers proposals as the children have voiced very strong opinions that they do now want to see me.

Papa,

Are you saying the kids want to see you?

I would expect the Court to seek gp and psychological report on you and at least some form of family mediation. The longer the contact is non existent the more difficult to re-establish.

E

sorry elle - fell asleep after posting last reply

No, it was a typo. It should have said children do NOT want to see me...

The CAFCASS report also says contact should only be re-established after referral to court . That's why its so ridiculous and completely biased. And that's why I wonder whether the CAFCASS officer could have been bribed!

The report is definitely flawed. But will the court accept that without doing a final hearing? And how can I get the court to commission an independent psychologists report to investigate the PAS?

Many thanks in advance

Hi,
Look, I'm going to be brutally honest with you here and you may not like what I say.

You are coming across as totally paranoid and desperate to blame everyone exept yourself for this situation.

I mean, the CAFCASS officer could have been bribed?, give me a break for gods sake.
I can see why they came to the conclusions of their report to be honest.

Another thing,
There is no such thing as a PAS specialist psychologist, at least not in this country because like it or not although we all know PAS exists it's just not recognised in law here.

Look, because of your kids ages nobody, not even the highest court in the land is going to force them to see you, they have that choice.

Take a look at things from their prospective.
Here you are doing everything you can to stop them going away on holidays and acting like a demented lunatic, no wonder the mother finds it easy to turn them against you.

My honest advice to you would be to completely change tactics.
Stop all the fighting.
Try to win over their hearts and minds.
Write to them telling them that you no longer wish to stop them traveling and forget the court case.
Tell them that you love them very much and leave it up to them to come back to you.

You gotta stop acting the victim and allow your children to warm to you as a father, not someone who's trying to force contact at any cost.

I warn you now if you carry on in the present mode you risk losing all contact with your children for good.

I really wish you the very best of luck,
You're gonna need it.

The biggest tip on going forward that i can give you is to drop the labels you're trying to give this. By trying togive it a name and a blanket reason on pas you are harming your case not helping it.

You need to seriously sit down with the report and list each of the areas it's wrong, why it's wrong and then where possible submit evidence to prove it.

An example is in mine it said an incident took place whilst my eldest son lived with me and that had our son lived with his mother it wouldn't have happened. It was incorrect as he lived with his mother at the time and i provided a letter from the school proving that.

In yours you need to focus more on explaining why and how your ex is interfering with your relationship wth the children rather than just saying it's pas.

If there are inconsistancies with regard to how you were dealt with compared with your ex state why and how do not start going down the bribe route.

Focus on what you would do and how to make your relationship with the children better if given the chance and how and why the recommentations would not be in the childrens best interest.

You have a lot of work to do before tomorrow but you have to drop the pas blanket approach and focus on specifics and examples of issues instead.

The late report is standard but you can question the content of the report and the judge can order a finding of fact hearing with the cafcass officer brought in to answer questions on her report.

T