From the Federal Circuit Court of Australia:
FAMILY LAW – Parenting – Twins aged 7 – one twin currently spending three hours per fortnight with the father; the other refusing to do so – father seeking orders for the children to spend time with him each alternate weekend and for half of the school holidays – mother seeking a no time order – where the mother alleges that the father perpetrated severe coercive and controlling family violence during and after the parties relationship which included hitting and pushing her, grabbing her by the throat, spitting on her, verbally abusing and threatening to kill her, damaging property, and taking or threatening to take the children in order to coerce her into agreeing to his demands including a demand to drop an ADVO application – where the mother agreed to the father spending time with the children for three years after the final separation but ended time soon after the children told her that the father had assaulted his current partner – where the father denies assaulting his current partner – where the father made some limited admissions about being violent to the mother but otherwise denied the mother’s allegations – where the father blamed his behaviour on the mother allegedly having mental health issues – where the court accepts the mother’s evidence and considers that there is an unacceptable risk of the children being exposed to family violence in the father’s unsupervised care - Independent Children’s Lawyer agreeing but proposing an order for long term supervised time – no benefit to the children in such an order – order made that the children spend no time with and have no communication with the father.
Michelle McMahon appeared for the Independent Children's Lawyer.