Father's rights

[Gob]

A mother who was tortured by her former fiance in front of their children is being forced to write to him in prison – or face being jailed herself.



Natalie Allman, 29, was battered and slashed across the throat by Jason Hughes during a seven-hour ordeal because he wanted to make her ‘ugly’ after she ended their relationship. But she has now been ordered to provide the former Territorial Army soldier with regular updates about their twin sons after he launched a legal battle from his cell.


Under parental rights laws, Miss Allman must send letters and photos of the five-year-olds to her attacker three times a year and will be held in contempt of court if she refuses. Miss Allman, who still bears the scars of her ordeal, said yesterday that she is being wrongly made to feel like a criminal. ‘We are the victims, not him,’ she said. ‘I thought he was going to kill me that night for no reason and my boys saw that. They were terrified,’ she added.

‘I’m so angry that the law still defends his parental rights and that he is still being allowed to control us from behind bars.’ Hughes, 42, was jailed for nine years in 2012 following the brutal attack at the couple’s home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, the year before. He had flown into a jealous rage when Miss Allman dumped him just two months before they planned to marry, telling Hughes that she was seeing somebody else. The former reservist, who had an alcohol addiction, attempted to smother her with a pillow before repeatedly bludgeoning her with a dumb bell and slashing her throat.

Hughes, who was trained to use bayonets and knives in the Army, only let Miss Allman call an ambulance after seven hours. Officers arrived to find their terrified sons, then two, in bed with their mother covered in blood. Miss Allman suffered horrific wounds and needed cosmetic surgery on her throat, but later rebuilt her life and had another child with a new partner. But in January last year Hughes applied for a residence and contact order under the Children Act of 1989, demanding six letters a year as well as phone calls.

Despite spending £3,000 fighting the order, a judge ordered Miss Allman to send three letters a year on the children’s school progress, health and emotional development or face a fine or jail. Hughes was given permission to send them one letter a year as well as cards at birthdays and Christmas. Miss Allman said she is sickened by letters she has already received from Hughes, which she says describe how he is allowed to play on an Xbox games console and work as a bee-keeper. She has been told to keep them in case the boys want to read them one day. She said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. ‘I could end up being split up from my children and sent to prison when he was the one who attacked me. I’m the one being treated like a criminal.’

[MajGenl.Meade]

work as a bee-keeper.

Well that's a bit of a give-away.

[BoSoxGal]

[rubato]

Like Edmund Hillary, and Sherlock Holmes.

Peter Fonda, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Democritus, Pythagorus, Gregor Mendel, Steve Vai, Marcus Aurelius, George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

... and all of them highly suspect individuals! (Have to smile at Sherlock being in there).

[Big RR]

Which Sherlock Homes--the one with the male Dr. Watson or the one with the female Watson sidekick?

[Crackpot]

The one with Jude Law or Bilbo Baggins or was it Sir Ben Kingsley?

[rubato]

... and all of them highly suspect individuals! (Have to smile at Sherlock being in there).

Shire, I included him in order to make it seem more like an attainable aspiration. If even a fictional character can do it ...



True story, the first draft of the 23 psalm was written" the lord is my beekeeper ..." A friend talked him out of it. " look here KD, ( he liked to be called KD by his closest friends) I know you really like the bee thing but it won't scan for most people you need a warmer image here."

KD: " cowherd? Goat boy? "

" I know! Sheep! they're my subjects and if I say they're sheep then they're sheep."

[TPFKA@W]

The judge should be disbarred or whatever is comparable in this crazed place they exist.

[rubato]

I think there are some more creative approaches to this.

1. She could hire someone else to write the letters and give each new writer a list of different names, ages, interests and activities to incorporate so that every four months he get a letter which appears to be about an entirely different family.
2. She could tell him that she potty trained the kids by laminating his picture into the toilet bowl and send photographic proof.
3. She could tell him that she has spread the idea that she didn't think someone with a penis that small could get her pregnant.
4. Or she could just move to another state, don't tell anyone where, and ignore the stupid thing.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Gob]

"Another state?" The People's republic of South Yorkshire?

[MajGenl.Meade]

France... that's another state. Confusion... undress... there are so many.

[Guinevere]

My first thought was that she should take the kids and leave for France, but that would only get her in a worse pickle.

Unfortunately, the court ordered her to facilitate the communication with the father. She should comply with the order while she makes a case to terminate his parental rights.

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Lord Jim]

I like rube's idea about the toilet training photos...

[MajGenl.Meade]

should comply with the order while she makes a case arrangements to terminate his life parental rights.

FTFY?

[Big RR]

I have to agree Guin; from what I know of EU law, she probably would have to comply with the British court order while she resided in any EU country or be held in comtempt. The other country's courts may have the power to overturn the order, or they may not, and complex conflicts of law rules would apply. I have dealt with cross border injunctions in the past, and a lot of this law is so new the courts are very slow to act.

I don't understand why the courts haven't already terminated his parental rights (perhaps some provision of british law), but I do agree she should seek that through the courts.

[BoSoxGal]

I admit I'm not familiar with parental rights laws in the UK, but in the US, being in prison - even for beating your children's mother in front of them, or even murdering her, for that matter - is not automatic grounds for termination of parental rights.

Do folks here believe it should be?

[TPFKA@W]

Oh heavens no. They should hang a medal on his ass instead and name him parent of the year.