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Family Courts: Mothers DYING After Abusers Gain Access to Children

Five mums have died after family courts allowed fathers accused of abuse to apply for contact with their children, a BBC investigation has found.

BBC 5 SEP 2023

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Some took their own lives, another had a heart attack outside court. One mother, whose child was ordered to live with a convicted child rapist, would no longer eat and drink and "gave up living", friends say.

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Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno says parental alienation is a "handy tool for abusers" in the family courts

A separate study has found 75 children forced into contact with fathers who had been previously reported for abuse.

In some cases, in the England-wide study carried out by the University of Manchester and revealed for the first time by the BBC, the fathers were convicted paedophiles.

All the fathers in the study had responded in court to allegations of abuse with a disputed concept known as "parental alienation", in which they claimed the mothers had turned the child against them without good reason.

Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno, who led the research, says the concept is a "handy tool for abusers" and its acceptance by courts is a "national scandal".

Family law barrister, Lucy Reed KC, says the term is deployed "increasingly frequently" - but doesn't always mean the same thing. "It's quite often used by fathers to mean pretty much anything that is in opposition to their demand for a certain amount of contact."

The 45 mothers of the children in the University of Manchester study all reported serious health problems which they believed were linked to the stress of family court proceedings - including miscarriages, heart attacks and suicidal thoughts.

For months, the BBC has also been examining stories of traumatised women as part of a wider investigation into the way the family courts handle domestic violence claims in disputes between parents.

Because of the laws surrounding reporting of the court proceedings, intended to protect children, the women's names and some identifying details have been changed.

Domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs says the "harrowing" cases uncovered by the BBC show there is a need for "urgent and wide-reaching reform" of family courts. Abusers aided by unregulated experts were using "so-called parental alienation" to "deflect from their own abusive behaviour", she says.

Since we made the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) aware of our investigation, the BBC has learned the government is investigating whether further action is needed on "alienation". The judiciary has also issued new draft guidelines for consultation on handling parental alienation claims in domestic abuse cases - although some experts say they don't go far enough.