A shocking decision from the judge

Hello to everyone.

I am not directly involved in the case but I would like to know if any similar cases have happened, my role here is as the new partner (we are in a 10 months relationship) of the woman who is in the divorce process.

My partner has been 2 years involved in her divorce, she has two girls which one has some critical health difficulties and needs constant care from the parents and nurses. Also, my partner told me that the father of her girls has been harassing her, stalking her, using the old daughter to know about my partner's life, installing a tracker on her car and more... She told me that he is a narcissistic, and made her life hell, that is the reason for the divorce after 18 years of marriage.

In the past, my partner, her ex and her old daughter have been in therapies as the court, social workers, the guardian, and other professionals have suggested taking and at the end of those therapies a report of 103 pages which explains how the father's behavior is not doing any good to the children, came out, which it says in short words that the father's behavior is manipulating the older daughter and developing stress on her.

Today was the hearing where it possibly will end the long divorce process, but the Judge has decided to "award" the father with daily none supervised direct contact to the young daughter for 2 hours in the family house and 3 days a week contact to the oldest daughter, also the judge has said for the father to start a new therapy which will last 26 weeks and it gave a date for the last hearing in May. My partner is in a career break but her ex is still working and his time to visit his younger daughter would start at 6-ish pm every day and the same for the 3 days contact to the older daughter, which Social workers must decide what days are. How on the hearth a Judge can take such a bad decision, even having a very substantial report about the father's behavior. I do not get it and you all can imagine how my partner is feeling.

Has someone ever seen a case similar to this one? I do not know how to take it.

Thanks for reading, I will appreciate very much your honest opinion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2020 08:49PM by Gdrom.

(1) You are recounting something second hand. You do not actually know what the report said and/or what was said in oral evidence before the judge. Quite apart from the fact that judges are not bound by reports I would be surprised if the report actually said that the father should have no contact with his children.

(2) You are taking one spouse's account as gospel. This is rarely sensible. As they say, there are two sides to every story.

(3) It is normally regarded as in the best interests of children to have good quality contact with BOTH parents. That is the case even though one or both parents may have issues of one sort or another. Assuming those issues are not such as to pose an actual danger to the child then a court will normally try to see how those issues can be managed rather than cutting off contact completely. That is what seems to be happening here.