Very long story cut very short. A friend of ours has a son (aged 8-9), the father of whom is a nasty manipulative piece of scum who lives a couple of villages away. They have a court order that permits him having the boy something like every other weekend. The trouble is that this bloke constantly messes with the boundaries of the order and is properly deranged. Heres the type of stuff he does:
- calls the boy's school and says stuff like "There's been a family bereavement" or "He's not well etc" so he can get him the day off and end up taking him places that he (the father, not the boy) wants to go. The school do nothing and don't even notify the mother so she doesn't even find out until her son finally decides to tell her.
- tells him he has things wrong with him physically and psychologically
- attends the boy's eye test and interferes so much that the optom had to call in a consultant who subsequently agreed to make a statement against him
- messes around with his schooling and homework
- feeds him all sorts of lies and mind games so he ends up manipulating his mother (and new husband)
- drives like a maniac with the boy in the car (he even does this on school grounds)
- sleeps with him on overnighters (only recently found out about and the concern now is that there may be physical abuse)
- loads of other stuff
Here's the latest one: the father was supposed to hand the boy over to his mother (and husband) yesterday evening so they could go away for the week. But he refused to. Instead, he turned the boy into a hostage and made him say really weird things in the garden to her while filming it all! The mother called the police but they won't get involved - and she and her friend also had no luck with any child support numbers. Apparently she's round there now (husband not allowed to accompany her) trying to 'free' him but isn't getting anywhere. Naturally she's in bits.
This has gone on too long. She's in a mess as is her son. The only person getting anything out of this is the father (who doesn't work due an accident - and subsequently spends his time making up more and more twisted scenarios). She's dealt with Cafcass in the past and has a solicitor but nothing's ever changed. The school are useless and do nothing. Yet the father gets to break the rules without consequence.
Are there any particular steps she should follow to get this sorted?
Any advice appreciated. Cheers.
