Australian Protective Dad Kept from Son While the System Dithers
Meanwhile, have I started an international incident? It could be since the Australian Attorney General's Office issued a veiled threat towards me.
Paul is a protective parent who hasn’t seen his youngest son in years.
Though he and the mother of his children were together for a long time, they never got married.
Paul told me he last saw his son in July 2017.
“That’s how fucked the system is.” Paul wrote in an email.
I have done a story like this many times, but this is different. That’s because Paul lives in Australia.
I have been talking about this global phenomenon in which family courts target protective parents and force children into abusive situations for well over a year. Last year, Megan Fox and I interviewed Grant Wyeth, an Australian journalist who has been documenting this same phenomenon in his home country and elsewhere.
Megan and I also interviewed Liz Perkins from the Daily Express in England. She also found enormous evidence in her country of courts forcing children with abusers.
While Megan and I bemoaned the lack of transparency in American family courtrooms, the US is still far ahead of England and Australia.
Many American courtrooms forbid recordings, but I once recorded my confrontation with an American judge: Monmouth (NJ) Judge Angela Dalton.
Nothing like this could every happen in those two countries. The purported reason-as in the US- is that the privacy of the minor is sacrosanct.
In fact, the courts use this right to privacy as a hammer to make sure that their misdeeds are not reported.
For instance, I can’t release any court records- particularly court orders- in this case. Courtrooms in Australia and England are closed with absolutely no recording. Any story which talks about details of a case a judge must approve first.
Here is part of a statement I received from the Australian Attorney General’s Office, “We also draw your attention to section 121 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) which deals with restrictions on the publication of family law proceedings. Section 121 states, among other things, that it is an indictable offence to publish (or otherwise disseminate to the public) an account of family law proceedings which identifies a party, an individual related to a party (for example, a child) or witnesses, without first obtaining the Court's approval.”
“That sounds like a threat: that last paragraph.” I responded, “No wonder you have so much corruption in your courts. You are more worried about details of the corruption being revealed than the corruption itself.”
The text of the act is found here.
Carol, Paul’s mom, told me that she believes there is widespread corruption in Australian family courts and many people would like to come forward, but there is little appetite from the media to cover these issues.
Carol also said she has heard of parents who have been jailed for revealing details of their Australian family court proceedings.
I can , however, reveal how the police and child protection failed to do their job.
If they had done their job, Paul’s ex might have been charged with crime. As it is, they passed the allegations back and forth, never doing a proper investigation.
Paul’s son had injuries and Paul had already witnessed his son’s mother physically assault his son.
“After I left her in 2011 several times I witnessed her pick {their son} up by one arm and several times when I went to pick {their son} up from her home, she would swing {their son} over the child restraint gate at her front door. Every time I would ask her not to do that, she would scream and swear at me. She injured {Paul’s son’s} shoulder. 10th July 2013 Joel {an older son} and I witnessed {his son’s mother} forcefully grab {their son} by the chin and twist his head fully to one side,” Paul wrote in an email.
Ashley is Joel’s girlfriend. Joel is over eighteen.
Ashley described in an email another disturbing scene from January 2022.
“In January this year {Paul’s son} had extreme pain in the back of both of his legs from knees down, he told me his pain was so bad he was in bed crying and his legs were also twitching. When I asked {his mother} have you taken him to a doctor, she said its only growing pains and she told me she gave him Melatonin which would help him, when I googled it, it was an over the counter herbal product. {Paul’s son} didn’t believe his pain was only growing pains, he asked me and his two older brothers if they ever had excruciating pain like that. We all told him we hadn’t. I believe Carol spoke to a GP who told her {Paul’s son’s} leg pain and twitching is most likely coming from his neck injury. I know {Paul’s son} has a serious neck injury I’ve read a couple of his medical reports about his neck. I strongly believe {Paul’s son} needs proper medical attention for his neck injury.” She wrote.
Carol tells me that between local police and child protection she has mostly been passed around. Here is part of one letter.
Thank you for your correspondence dated 22 October 2021, to the Hon. David Elliott MP, former Minister for Police and Emergency Services, regarding alleged perjury committed by {Paul’s ex} during Family Law proceedings. The Minister requested that the NSW police Force respond on his behalf.
Should you wish to make a report in relation to the alleged perjury, please contact your local Police station. This can then be assessed and responded to accordingly by the Police.
Here is part of a letter Paul received from the Australian Attorney General’s Office.
Carol and Paul have gone to everyone from their local police, Parliament, along with the Australian Attorney General’s Office. They went to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) who said in an email from March 14, 2021, “The offense of perjury is covered in NSW legislation as well as commonwealth legislation and can be investigated by state police with a view to bring charges under either legislative instruments. Please be aware, however, that prosecutions for perjury are very rare due to the subjective nature of material put before the courts.”
I reached out to the AFP to ask for a fuller explanation of what they meant by the “subjective nature of material put before the courts,” but they didn’t respond.
NSW stands for New South Wales, an Australian state. I reached out by email to the NSW Police, which investigated the alleged physical abuse, but they did not respond.
The Australian Attorney General’s Office did respond.
Perjury in Australian federal court proceedings is a Commonwealth criminal offence under the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth). Therefore, any investigations would be conducted by federal law enforcement agencies, rather than by Australia’s state and territory police forces (such as NSW Police). The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is Australia’s national and principal federal law enforcement agency, which investigates the alleged commission of Commonwealth criminal offences. Allegations of perjury before the federal courts can be reported directly to the AFP, if such allegations have not been referred by the relevant court for investigation.
As outlined in the Attorney-General’s Department’s correspondence to Ms Carol {surname} of 3 September 2020 (which you attached to your enquiry), the AFP is operationally independent and makes decisions about whether or not to investigate a reported Commonwealth criminal offence.
The evidence that Paul’s ex has been abusing their son is fairly significant. Besides the statement Paul gave me, his son Joel also provided an affidavit which detailed the abuse.
Some time in 2013, I was in my dad’s car with my brother Trent {also over 18}. We went back to my mother’s house {address hidden} to drop my brother Trent off.
When we arrived, we stopped across the road of my mum’s house. I looked towards the house and saw my brother who was 4 years old standing on the balcony. I got out of the car and so my dad, I walked to the back of the car and I saw {Paul’s son} ran across the road towards us. I saw my dad step out to road and pick {Paul’s son} up. At this point, they were about one meter off the car.
About 30 seconds later, I saw my mum run out. I looked at her face and saw that she looked angry. I saw mum run up to {Paul’s son} who in my dad’s arm and grab him on the chin by placing her finger and thumb around the jaw line like she did to me when I was younger. I then saw my mum pull his chin sideways. I then heard {Paul’s son} moan in pain. I then heard an argument between mum and dad. Not long after I left with my dad.
There are medical reports which also provide evidence of physical abuse. Below is part of a letter which his doctor wrote.
“{Their son} has a year long history of headaches which are increasing in frequency. They occur frontally and to the left of his head. They are associated with left-sided neck pain. When he gets these headaches, he often has to lie down and rest until they settle with some Panadol.” This doctor’s report from 2016 stated. “The headaches started when {their son} was allegedly picked up and strangled at the neck with the neck twisted by his mother (about August last year). This reportedly happened when she was fighting with her partner. {Their son} went to ring his father to say that his mother and her partner were fighting again. The mother reportedly came over then knocked the phone out of his hand and picked him up by the neck.”
Paul’s son has even disclosed other abuse to a psychologist.
“On his first appointment {Paul’s son} reported, unprompted, that he had seen his mother do some naughty things. {Paul’s son} reported that his mother had sex with the 18 year old. When asked what does sex mean, {Paul’s son} reported when people are on top of each other. When asked how often this occurred, {Paul’s son} paused and was thinking and then said two times.”
When Paul’s son spoke with a detective, here is part of that exchange.
Interviewer: “Oh, okay. Tell me something that you like about your Dad?”
{Paul’s son}: “Mm … um that — that he takes me to the park and he, he doesn’t um twist my neck.”
Interviewer: “Sorry?”
{Paul’s son}: “That Daddy takes me to the park and doesn’t twist my neck.”
Interviewer: “That he takes you to the park?”
{Paul’s son}: “Mummy’s twisted my neck and she’s never tooken me to the park but Daddy has never twisted my neck and he’s took me to the park!”
That wasn’t enough. When the allegations of abuse were investigated, the police told Paul and Carol that charges would not be filed because of a “balance of probabilities.”
Carol hired a criminal solicitor who wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Police in NSW. The letter stated in part, “Any suggestion that the evidence against {Paul’s son’s} mother is incapable of sustaining a criminal charge is in essence an assertion that {Paul’s son} is not a credible or reliable witness.”
With police unwilling or unable to file charges, Paul was left defenseless in the family court case. Just imagine if his child custody case could be examined.
I think it’s time for the Australian government to repeal Section 121 of the Family Law Act.
Update:
After this article was published, both the NSW Police and the AFP issued statements.
Below is the statement from the NSW Police.
Lake Illawarra Detectives have investigated reports of alleged historical child abuse, with investigations subsequently reviewed by the Child Abuse Squad, which found no further action can be taken.
As the claim of alleged perjury relates to Family Law Court, it would be inappropriate for NSW Police to comment, as it is outside of our jurisdiction.
Here is the statement from AFP.
In considering whether to investigate a matter, the AFP considers a range of matters including:
· Whether there is sufficient evidence to substantiate a Commonwealth offence.
· The level of harm, public interest and the level of resources required to investigate a matter.
· Competing priorities at the time of the report.
