In a recent child custody case I acted for the mother in circumstances where the father took the law into his own hands and changed the school the children were enrolled at, without the agreement from the mother for him to do so, nor with an order of the Family Court authorising him to do so.
The Father then withheld the children from seeing my client. Such conduct without an order of the court is impermissible. I filed a recovery application for my client and when the recovery application came before the Court, the presiding judge ordered the children be returned to my client, forthwith.
In this case the child’s i-phone was linked to my client’s. The Father alleged the child had viewed images of a sexual nature which had passed between my client and her boyfriend. It was alleged that because the images had been stored in the cloud the child had seen them because they had not been password protected.
At best, the father’s case was tenuous. The images did not involve the children or any child and were not intended to be seen by the children or any child. There was no evidence that the child, aged 11, had been harmed, much less abused. The conduct by the father was opportunistic, seizing the chance to effect a change of residence, a case he had unsuccessfully been pursuing through the court for the past 2 years.
Injunctions were made limiting the child’s carriage device’s accessibility and the matter settled on a final basis that day.
With rapid technological advances afoot, parents need to be mindful of what their children can access through carriage devices and appropriate security measures needs to be put in place, securing images and carriage devices.
Need a child custody lawyer in Sydney? Call us to book a consultation.