He didn't want to go to his dad's anymore - but was told 'fathers have rights'

On a slip of paper dropped into a school ‘worry box’, a child makes a devastating cry for help. They write that their father has been sexually abusing them, desperate and unsure where else to turn.

But in the family court the child’s father was granted continued access to them, and the child was banned from using the worry box again. It is just one of many examples of fathers accused of child sexual abuse given legal access to their alleged victim - and the victim being effectively gagged - according to a recent study.

Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno, at the University of Manchester, believes, after years of research, that courts are too trusting of claims that such allegations arise from women's attempts to turn children against their fathers.

For a research paper she has spoken to 45 women who appeared in family court across England who - along with some of their children - accused the men of abuse. In what she described as ‘the worst system’ she has ever been exposed to, she found that in 96 per cent of the cases, fathers were given access to their alleged victims - including in all ten cases where child sexual abuse was alleged, her research claims.

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The Children Act 1989 in 2014, requires courts to presume 'unless the contrary is shown, that involvement of [a] parent in the life of the child concerned will further the child’s welfare', and that a parent’s involvement in the child’s life will not cause the child harm unless there is evidence to the contrary.

But Dr Dalgarno believes legitimate complaints of sexual abuse are being minimised in favour of this principle - with mothers being labelled as 'alienators' over attempts to protect their children.

“So in a nutshell, what we found was that the courts diminished child sexual abuse allegations and labelled them as the mothers attempting to alienate the children,” she told the Manchester Evening News.

The concept of ‘parental alienation’ refers to one parent ‘alienating’ a child from another by an ‘ongoing pattern of negative attitudes and communication that could destroy their relationship’, according to family court advisors Cafcass. But Dr Dalgarno said the concept is a ‘pseudo science’, and that there is ‘little evidence’ to suggest children can be coerced into making false sexual abuse allegations.

There is little data to explore over how common false child sexual abuse allegations are, but Dr Dalgarno claims it sits at around 0.01%- 2%. In the study, parental alienation was found by courts in all the child sex abuse (CSA) cases in which it was alleged.

“So we contend that this treatment of vulnerable women and their children is effectively an act of state sanctioned abuse, and state gaslighting, " Dr Dalgarno told the M.E.N.

She is careful to clarify that while she does not believe alienation is a valid scientific phenomenon, she does accept that children can be 'manipulated'. But she contends existing frameworks that are already part of statutory guidance take this into account, and the word 'alienation' is instead used as a tool to harm mothers and children.

"Children can be manipulated just like adults can, and they can be manipulated to reject safe, loving parents," she said. "Our issue is that there are frameworks that exist already that can explore that.

"This framework of parental alienation is extremely harmful to women and children who were victims of abuse. But beyond that as well, no scientific valid studies support the concept, whereas there are multiple hundreds of studies on trauma abuse and coercive control."

The consequences of mothers being found to be ‘alienators’ can be massive, her research suggests. In one example cited in the report, the child was removed from the mother and forced to live with the father. They were then continuously raped by the father for several years. The vile offending only came to light several years later in court after the child’s mother hired experienced child sexual abuse experts, the report says.

In many of these cases the alleged abuse was never confirmed by a criminal conviction. But in some, Dr Dalgarno's research says fathers admitted the abuse in the family court or were already convicted sex offenders. This included a child whose father admitted exposing them to intra-familial sexual abuse material, which was livestreamed on the internet and recorded by the father, the research finds.

All fathers were granted some level of access to their alleged victim, she claims. Her report found only fathers who had criminal convictions for CSA were considered to meet the threshold for concern for risk or harm, though they were still given overnight contact with the children, supervised by paternal family members.

In four cases involving alleged CSA by the father, the mothers lost residency of their children to the alleged perpetrator father. All of these transfers of residency were the result of findings of parental alienation or ‘alienating behaviours’, the report found.

The paper has been double blind peer reviewed - an evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field - and published in the journal of social welfare and family law.

In one example given in her study, she claims a father was granted access to his child victim after telling the court he had ‘only been messing around,” despite sexual videos of the child having been made. The mother said she felt the court was “very, very, pro, pro, pro father”.

“My son had come home with bruises,” the woman is reported to have told researchers. “My son had specifically said he didn't want to go to his dad's. He [son] disclosed a lot of things… but because [father] said, “I'm sorry…we were only messing around and there wasn't actually any penetration”, he got away with it.

“I've got to live with those videos in my head and they even upset the police officers,” she added. “There was no empathy [from the family court]. There was nothing, just ‘fathers have rights’.”

Dr Dalgarno claims she was also ‘gobsmacked’ to find that on more than one occasion, women reported family court judges had intervened to close down active criminal investigations into child sexual abuse (CSA), and on the grounds that they perceived the mother was an ‘alienator’.

Her example of the child being barred from using the ‘worry box’ is echoed by similar examples in the report. Another woman’s story is quoted, where she says her children were banned from using diaries where they could record their concerns.

“My children had accused their father of sexual abuse and he came back with parental alienation after a number of years of not mentioning it,” she told researchers.

“They're not allowed to use any form of disclosing tool or not allowed to buy them any diaries. I’ve been told if I report further allegations then basically my ex has got a fast-track back to court for immediate change of residence…so they threatened me and gagged the girls effectively.”

Dr Dalgarno told the M.E.N a finding of parental alienation is often then circulated to other agencies including a child's school and social services. This means that children can be blocked from using safeguarding mechanisms used by schools - such as a 'worry box' - due to instructions from the family court, her report suggests.

The team behind the report argue the use of ‘parental alienation’ or ‘alienating behaviours’ as a defence in court - essentially arguing that the child has been turned against one parent by the other and any allegations made by both are false - should be banned.

Dr Dalgarno added there is ‘no scientific backing’ to the idea of parental alienation, claiming she has seen women accused of alienating children simply by wearing a certain facial expression or feeding a child popcorn. She said on rare occasions fathers are accused of alienation - but that in her experience, courts ‘outright refused’ to investigate these claims.

“It’s the Wild West,” she told the M.E.N. “It is the worst system I have ever been exposed to - and I’ve worked in public and private social care for over 20 years now.

“It's absolutely unbelievable.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Children’s safety is absolutely paramount and judges have extensive powers to block parental involvement where there is a risk to the child.

"We will also bring forward legislation to restrict parental responsibility for any parent convicted of child sexual offences.”