From His Honour Judge Geddes Sir: 'Family court judges tend
to force fathers to prove they are fit parents, prove they are not violent or feckless. By contrast, they assume that mothers are generally the best parent for the child to live with, regardless of how they have behaved . . . the courts are institutionally biased against husbands, oust- ing them from their homes on the slightest pretext, stripping a man of his children and his assets even if his wife has gone off with a lover and his own behaviour has been exem- plary. The judges will also accept a wife's claims that the man is violent on the basis of no evidence, in a system where it is impossi- ble to mount a proper cross-examination of her allegations. Yet on this pretext they will deprive a man of contact with his chil- dren. . . . '(Melanie Phillips last week.) Your readers will, I hope, be relieved to hear that virtually none of that is true. Family cases are never easy. The courts try to do their best in what is very often a high- ly charged situation, where the truth is extremely difficult to establish.
Where children are involved the paramount consideration is not 'justice' between the adults but what is in the best interests of the children. Sometimes unhap- pily this means that an undeserving mother (or father) obtains an order that the chil- dren should live with her (or him). Howev- er, the courts will, save in the most excep- tional cases, try to see that the non-resi- dent parent has frequent contact with the children, even if this has to be supervised (at least initially) in order to ensure that the children are not put at risk.
Andrew Geddes
Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire
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