Family Law

A Bristol judge has decided to publish his decision in an exceptional case of parental alienation.

The Designated Family Judge for the Western Circuit, HHJ Wildblood QC, wanted the public to be aware how badly wrong things can go for a family when one parent chooses to alienate the children from the other parent. 

What is parental alienation?

There is no definition set out in law, however parental alienation is recognised by Cafcass as being "when a child’s resistance or hostility towards one parent is not justified and is the result of psychological manipulation by the other parent". 

The court recognises that this is one of a variety of reasons why a child may be resistant to spending time with a parent and all other factors, such as domestic abuse, are also considered when trying to understand the reasons behind such behaviour.

Recent case

In this case (A (Children: parental alienation), the children's father had originally applied for contact in 2011.  Over the years there were 36 hearings, extensive professional input and public law proceedings.  The continued hope was that it would all lead to successfully re-establishing contact between the father and his children. 

However, the problem was identified too late and the extent of the children's alienation from the father had been underestimated. The damage had already been done.  A trial transfer of residence for the children to live with the father had failed badly and the children ran away.  Contact broke down completely and it became clear that it would never work for the children to live with their father, because they had been so alienated from him.  As a result, and in order to prevent further distress to the children, the father decided to withdraw the court proceedings.

Highlighting the severity of the mother's conduct, HHJ Wildblood QC pointed out that "parental responsibility… requires her to act in the best interest of her children… to promote the relationship between these children and their father ".  He went on to say "she had adult choices to make; the choices that she made were bad ones and deeply harmful to the children".

The message from the judge was simple: early intervention is essential in cases where parental alienation is suspected.  If such intervention is not forthcoming, or the problems spotted too late, it can cause significant long-term emotional harm to the children involved and cause irreparable damage to the relationship they have with their parents.

Historically, indirect contact (such as writing letters or messages) has been used as a form of maintaining contact between the "alienated" parent and children, but the judge gave the clear view that this was of limited use in such cases.