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Hello Everyone
Please can anyone help me, I am the father of a lovely daughter who will be 7 in July. I need to win sole custody of my daughter and I need all the help and advice I can get.
I am rapidly coming to the end of what has been a very unhappy relationship with my daughters mother, she has pushed me to the brink of walking out so many times, but I've always hung in there for my daughters sake. I will not go into all the details, because that would take too long, I have been attacked both verbally and physicaly by my partner, sometimes in front of my daughter. She drinks too much and on one ocassion forgot to pick up our daughter from pre-school, never phoned the school to say she was running late. They called me I had to pick her up, My partner arrived at my parents house over 1 hour later. The most recent problem I have is that she has now joined a phone [censored] site and has men calling her day and night pretending to have [censored] with her! This takes place when my daughter is in the house, she is also smoking and taking the batteries out of the smoke alarms so that she can smoke in any room she like's. She is often drunk while doing this. I stay because I'm very frightened in case she gets so drunk and a stray cigarette sets the house on fire. I have asked her repeatedly to stop these [censored] calls but she has refused!
I need help and advice asap please, does anyone know of a very good solicitor who fights for fathers rights?
My daughter is my life, so please help.
Kind regards David
Hi David,
Sorry to hear how hard it's been for you. I can understand your concern & wanting to protect your daughter. Have you been keeping a written diary of what has been happening? If not, I would strongly suggest that you start keeping one with dates & times that things happen. Also, saving any texts, emails etc that prove what has been happening. With regard to the phone calls she has been receiving, you may be able to get a list from your phone provider of all in coming calls if your name is on the bill. (just a thought!)
There are people on here who have given advice on how to represent yourself when you & fight for custody of your child. You'll find it under the Legal Eagle section of the Forum. Not that I'm suggesting that you do, but it is an option you might want to look into.
Hi Kempster and welcome
I will ask the CCLC to come on here and give advice, but I would seriously consider leaving and taking your daughter with you (and hopefully the CCLC will comment on this advice as well) - I would say that as long as you can provide for your daughters welfare, then you have as much right to leave and take her as any mother would have if the situation is reversed. You would then need to apply for a residence order to make it official and arrange contact with your ex, which I would say under the circumstances, would need to be supervised.
As you are still in the house, I would also photograph anything you feel might be useful later on, but avoid being seen doing this as it may make matters much worse much faster, and if you can get any other evidence, it would help.
Keep checking back here for the CCLC's advice
Thanks for your reply, I've been keeping a diary for 4 years, I stopped writing in the diary about 15 months ago because my mother has become and is very ill indeed. Terrible mistake I know. I have taken the PC out of the house and my partner much to her displeasure has no access to the internet.
It's a terrible mess I'm going to see the CAB soon to seek advice. After reading the articles on this forum I'm not the only one with problems.
Thanks David
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