I was upset to read this account in the SMH.

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I am sure there's another side to this story and if anyone knows it, please share it here. Not knowing the full story, I am disheartened to think any father would take the legal process to this extreme. Surely he must have considered the mother of the children going to jail as an extreme form of punishment and hardly in the best interests of his children?

I am a supporter of fathers and mothers having a fair go and equal time with their children. I detest any parent that purposefully denies or disrupts the other parent having time with their children. Having the other parent jailed must be the most extreme form of this behaviour, court sanctioned apparently.

Shame on the father, shame on the judge and a pox on the system that would deny the children a mother for several weeks.

Thankfully, justice eventually prevailed.

This case puts us all to shame, lets have a fair go for every parent!

Hey Viking Princess

Had to admit the way the article was written it seemed very harsh to the mother, but I looked up a little more and read a few more articles. It seems the mother refused to allow contact with the father and was already on good behavior bond for breach of court orders.

Comments of " I do it all again " and such perhaps dignify that the magistrate felt he had no choice but for making his decisions in hope that in future the father would be allowed contact with the kids.

I've personally had dealings with how papers sensationalize tragic events to insight opinion, rarely is events straight forward.

For anyone in the FLC system to use such a warning which I might add is in the family law, is rare indeed and he would be aware that the decisions would open him up to all kinds of criticism and would not of done it on a whim.

Don't forget it was not the father who sentenced the woman , all he was trying to achieve was contact with his children which she had denied him for five years and this was even after the courts told her the father had rights.

To many who have suffered unforgivable terrorism at the hands of the other parent and had our children held hostage from us, a message as this magistrate gave could influence the childs Alienating aggressive parent that there is punishment for their crimes.

But I could be wrong, but I did find it unusual for someone to have the strength to apply the law.

parental alienation is child abuse

FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Dobbs & Brayson, PDF download of judgment (220KB)

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Thanks for the link gabrielefink,

As usual when reading judgments or legal explanations for decisions it takes me a while to digest, their is nothing to say that the judge did anything he was not entitled to do but rather did not explain his actions enough to satisfy scrutiny of an appeal body.

I'm not all the way through yet and will need to read it several times.

I may be wrong but I believe Tony Miller has commented on the situation perhaps if he did it may be posted.

So far though it seems the mother was given every opportunity to avoid the situation and offered no physical proof that her financial position existed and has thumbed her nose at the authority of the FLC.
Although the judge voiced his opinion it does not appear that he has explained with enough reasoning for his opinion. Perhaps to hasty, perhaps not exploring other possibility's or simply a ploy to access time for the children to establish a relationship with their father and as the fathers council has requested jail time due to the gravity of the alientation.

This is only an initial view so far and if I am mistaken I certainly will apologizes as soon as I have read and re-read the apeal.

The initial article in the news seemed to be bias towards the jailed mother and did not include all the facts ( how unusual ).

Unless you research the situation then the truth or shall we say the complete set of facts are unknown.

Does anyone know if it made news that she was sentenced or was it just the appeal decision ???????

It would also be interesting to see if the decision of the appeal will make the news, especially if it falls in favor of the father but is reduced to community service or fine.

There are many out there who breach orders that need to know there are punishments for their actions, they do not need more support for them as the article in question gives.

V.P. would have been like many who read the article, outraged for the poor mother who couldn't afford petrol because the childrens father gave no support and this is what the article is designed to do. Create outrage towards fathers and show how male FLC judges are becoming more and more leaniant towards fathers.

I doubt very much that the reporter themselves checked the fact of his source but lets face it the public know journalists have little integrity and even less ethics and more than likely a directive not to upset the exceptionally loud minority who object to fathers being part of their childrens life.