Problem

Our client was involved in a protracted action of divorce over a period of almost 3 years due to the complication of alleged assault by one of the couple’s children.

During the course of the marriage, our client, the father of two children had been persuaded to give up his well paid job to look after the children, enabling his wife to pursue her career which involved spending significant time away from the family home.   The eldest daughter was very close to her mother and resented her being away; she didn’t have a good relationship with her father whom she alleged had assaulted her on numerous occasions.

Our client worked on a part time basis as a taxi driver with no private pension provision and found himself in financial difficulties after the separation as all the matrimonial property had been purchased with the proceeds of sale of his wife’s non-matrimonial property or her inheritance.  He was excluded from the family home and refused contact with the children as the court appointed Curator and psychologist both believed the daughter’s assault claims – although neighbours and friends reported that the relationship was a pretty normal one and there was absolutely no independent evidence of abuse.

Advice

Prior to the proof hearing, and after 14 months of our client having been denied contact with his children, we obtained video recordings of the original joint police/social work interview with the child and instructed a child psychologist who was an expert in abuse cases.

She indicated that the child’s behaviour was not that of a child who had been abused and it was more likely that the child was manipulating the situation to spend more time with mother. However, she also advised that our client’s personality was not such as would allow him to forgive what had been done to him by his daughter and we had to agree that direct contact would not be in the children’s best interests.

Our client had a half share in the ownership of the matrimonial home worth £150,000 and there was a joint mortgage.   The wife initially made on offer of £25,000 to our client as his half share of the matrimonial property.   We ran an economic disadvantage argument that our client had a good career and good pension which he was persuaded to give up to instead drive a taxi and care for the couple’s children.

Outcome

Our client eventually received a capital sum of just under £85,000 and transferred his interest in the matrimonial home to his wife as this was the children’s home. An order was made for indirect contact with the children four times a year.