EWJ June 2024 web - Journal - Page 81
a long-term affect on the child’s ability to form
relationships.
B) Section 1(3) defines behaviour as abusive if it
consists of any of the following:
1. physical or sexual abuse;
2. violent or threatening behaviour
3. controlling or coercive behaviour
4. economic abuse, psychological, emotional or other
abuse. The abuse may be a single incident or a course
of behaviour.
Many alienated mothers and alienated fathers have
lost their children and the consequences flowing from
that can be devastating for the alienated parent and
worse for the alienated child victim. This raises the
question of why should children suffer harm as a
result of his parents’ relationships breakdown?
Parental Alienation is widely recognised even beyond
the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. Baroness Catherine
Mayer, House of Lords, said, “Children suffer greatly
from their parents' separation, but when their parents start arguing about money and contact rights, they find themselves
in an impossible situation. The only thing they realise is that
there is a state of war between the two people they need and
love most.
A child is included as a victim where there is any
reference in the Act to a victim of domestic abuse if
that child s.3(2) (a) sees or hears or experiences the
effects of the abuse and (b) is related to A or B
Parental alienation can take the form of manipulation,
coercive control, emotional abuse or any of the forms
defined above. It can sometimes be subtle. What is
new in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 is that children
are recognised as victims in their own right with the
right to be protected from coercive control, in whatever way that control shows itself. If it shows itself
through parental alienation, then a child can and
should be protected by this legislation. This legislation
makes it a premise that “Parental alienation is abusive
to victim parents and their children”.
Then, as so often happens if one parent begins the process of
denigrating the other parent they are further confused,
distressed and angry.
Under normal circumstances, a child’s opinion should be
taken seriously, but it is imperative to establish whether it is the
child’s own view or the result of deliberate indoctrination by
one of his or her parent before any decisions are made.
Parental Alienation – Moving Forward
As mentioned above, in cases where parental
alienation is raised or identified, it is desirable for it to
be addressed as early as possible. The preferred result
is for parents who are alienating the child against the
other parent to recognise their behaviour and start
working on redressing it. Professionals should receive
training on how to work with an alienating parent to
reverse the negative effect they are having on their
children and the other parent. Expert witnesses have
an invaluable role to play in sharing their knowledge
and experience and helping others address alienating
behaviours. It is envisaged as awareness grows that education and courses in this field will become available
so that parents who do recognise the damaging nature of what they are doing, as well as those parents
who do not recognise it but need to work on it, will
get the resources they need to stem this damaging and
toxic behaviour which all children and society as a
whole have the right to be protected from.
What greater psychological harm, what more intolerable situation could there be for a child, than to carry the main burden
of responsibility in adult court proceedings for deciding between mother and father? Asking a child to choose between
parents is a form of child abuse.”
Definition of Domestic Abuse
It is not the intention of this article to explore
domestic abuse under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021
generally. This article is concerned with parental alienation. It is worth explaining, however, the definition of
domestic abuse under the Act.
This is contained in section 1 (2) as “Behaviour of a
person (“A”) towards another person (“B”) is
“domestic abuse” if –
A) A and B are each aged 16 or over and are
personlly connected to each other and
the behaviour is abusive
MR MIKE HART
Senior Lecturer & Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon
BSc (Hons), MBChB, AHEA, PhD, FRCSEd (Neuro.surg), FEBNS
I perform work as an expert witness with Eopinex. My aim is to provide specialist information
in a clear and timely manner in order to produce the highest standard of court-compliant reports.
I actively participate in regular formal training from certified providers to keep up to date, as per
guidance from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (2019).
My clinical interests embody the full sphere of general neurosurgery. My specialty interest is
functional neurosurgery including deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, movement
disorders, pain, and epilepsy..
Contact Name: Mike Hart
Tel: 07810 080 007
Email: info@mrmikehart.com - Website: www.mrmikehart.com
Address: 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
79
JUNE 2024