Applying for custody after domestic violence charges
Hi Mamas! My son’s dad and I split up when he was 6 weeks old due to it becoming a very abusive relationship.
My son is now 2 and I’ve raised him by myself with no contact and a court order since April 2023. His dad’s court case for domestic violence/drug use/attempted strangulation by me has fallen through a week ago and none of his bail conditions now apply. He has made some kind of attempt to make contact and claims he wants to pursue seeing our son now. He is not on his birth certificate and doesn’t currently have any parental rights over him, the only person that does is me. How likely is it that he will move forward and be successful with this, despite charges still being on record? Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Thank you!!💘
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Im going through something mildly similar.
First of all don’t answer any calls. Keep any texts or emails saved.
It’s all up to him. He will have to engage a mediator to contact you. You should reply and be cooperative with setting up an appointment. But if you want to buy yourself as much time as possible push the meeting date as far as you can. When your mediator meeting happens you can explain you’ve suffered domestic violence. They’ll probably say mediation isn’t suitable. Then he’ll be granted a certificate allowing him to apply to the courts first for parental rights. Once he does this cafcass will then be in touch with you and you again will have to do a phone call and tell them exactly what happened. Why he’s a danger. All his abuse. Etc etc. they prepare a report for the courts in about two weeks. Then depending on the wait your first court date will be about a month or so after. It’ll be an initial hearing and you will 100% need a good barrister if you plan to keep him away
If however you feel like you could some how come to an agreement in mediation then again speak to a good family law solicitor. You can suggest supervised contact only in a centre that he has to pay for. However be aware this is not a long term solution and eventually if he shows commitment and doesn’t miss appointments and is calm with the child he could then apply for unsupervised contact meaning you will have to hand over your child and if it ends up court ordered you’ll have no choice. It’s a fuxked up game the family courts so I’d suggest getting really good advice
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