Helping a father be reunited with his child

Hi everyone

On the 28th January 2024 my husbands ex, his child’s mother was murdered. He has tried to reach out to the family to communicate with his child and received push back and still hasn’t spoken to his son, isn’t even allowed to speak to him and ask him if he’s ok. We have since found out that the family is now going for full custody and refusing to allow care of the child to the father. The media is also broadcasting that they are orphaned which is heartbreaking and false - there is also another child in the situation that isn’t my husbands whose father was forced into the same position as my husband and is still in this position and in the same battle as us. Because of the laws surrounding family court, my husband still needs to fight to even have his child or speak to him.

(You can look these laws up, it’s a common misconception that the surviving parent is automatically granted custody)

At the time of her passing, they both had court ordered arrangements for visitation but due to constant breaches and a large amount of things that we feel best not to share on a public platform in respects to her family, my husband had to make the heartbreaking decision to cease visitation after being told he wasn’t allowed to see his child yet again. All because he brought up the fact she had breached the order again. Walking away wasn’t easy and unfortunately this is the reality for a lot of men who start becoming alienated from their kids.

It has been 10 months since he has seen his son however he was still trying to make an effort. Messaging for his birthday, asking to send gifts, offering to pay for his school fees outside of child support - this was always met with negative responses.

I’m trying to raise funds to help my husband fight to have custody for his child.

We have applied for legal aid however this is a circumstance that needs to be started sooner rather than later and a child needs to be reunited with his dad and the longer we leave it, the more alienation and damage to their relationship will be caused.

Legal aid cannot give us a timeframe to when it will be approved or if it’s going to be granted - I’m hoping to raise enough funds to atleast get the ball rolling and to give us some wriggle room if legal aid isn’t approved - if we go over the goal, all funds will be declared to legal aid and put forward to lawyers fees but also any additional assistance the child might need. Outside of this, any additional money will be donated to the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers - it’s been a big decision and not one that was made lightly to ask for help, thats why we only want to accept what we need and pass on anything additional to an organisation who can help other fathers in this situation.

It’s such a difficult situation for both kids involved and they both deserve to have a relationship with their surviving parents. They’ve already gone through so much with not being able to have that relationship with both their fathers and now have lost their mother. You’re help is truly appreciated in helping bring my husbands son back to him to allow him to have that meaningful relationship that the child deserves and should be allowed to have.