{"id":317639,"date":"2025-10-30T06:52:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=317639"},"modified":"2025-11-01T06:43:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:43:41","slug":"what-do-they-have-planned-for-family-court-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=317639","title":{"rendered":"What do they have planned for Family Court \u201creform\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian Oct 28, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>It was busy weekend for those who follow British family court law. Normally speaking I wouldn\u2019t count myself among those people, but then social media and news headlines decided to ruin a decent Saturday by pouring a torrent of barely-disguised agenda over my head.<\/p>\n<p>It all started when I saw this tweet:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">10 babies per day are born in this country as a result of rape<\/p>\n<p>Up until now, men can demand access to those children, retraumatising the mothers &amp; endangering the children<\/p>\n<p>The gov has listened &amp; is stopping that.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m thrilled \uf389\uf389\uf389<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/u3zXCULG51\">https:\/\/t.co\/u3zXCULG51<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Natalie Fleet MP (@NatalieFleetMP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NatalieFleetMP\/status\/1980907940056854770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2026which made my brain itch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Consider:<\/strong> Ten babies per day is 3650 babies per year. In the UK there are roughly 600,000 births per year, and maybe 70,000 rapes.<\/p>\n<p>If these numbers are correct, then over 1 in every 200 babies born in the UK (0.6%) are the result of rape, and 1 in every 20 rapes (5%) results in a full-term pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>It just doesn\u2019t sound right, does it? And improbable statistics are always a horseman of an agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Now, digging down into how these figures came about could be a rabbit hole in and of itself, including asking questions about the apparent 400% <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2021\/11\/05\/highest-number-of-rapes-ever-recorded-in-one-year-with-61158-offences-15547808\/\">increase in rapes in the UK between 2011 and 2021<\/a>, even as most other violent crimes go down. These statistics are telling a story that likely has little bearing on reality.<\/p>\n<p>But in the end, it\u2019s largely irrelevant. Even if the data is real, there\u2019s no doubt the coordinated agenda rollout in the last week.<\/p>\n<p>This leads us to the first law change of the long weekend, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/2025\/oct\/22\/sex-offenders-to-be-denied-parental-responsibility-for-children-born-of?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other\">reported in the Guardian<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">In a government-backed amendment to the victims and courts bill, due to come before parliament on Monday 27 October, parental responsibility will automatically be restricted where a child is born of rape. New reforms will also see parental responsibility restricted when a parent is convicted of serious sex offences against any child, not just their own. It will mean sex offenders will no longer be able to intervene in decisions about medical care, schooling and overseas travel.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s change one.<\/p>\n<p>Change two relates to the revocation of the \u201cpresumption of parental involvement\u201d. Before now, British family courts worked under the assumption that contact with both parent was beneficial to children, unless proven otherwise. Changes in the law will now reverse this, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/government-action-to-protect-children-from-abusive-parents\">the government\u2019s statement<\/a> [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">If parents are <strong>thought to be<\/strong> a threat to their child\u2019s safety, involvement in their lives can be restricted, for example through courts ordering supervised contact, involvement limited to written communication, or by ordering that there should be no involvement at all.<\/p>\n<p>Note that it\u2019s <em>thought<\/em> to be, NOT <em>proven<\/em> to be. A very important difference.<\/p>\n<p>The third change, which was apparently a total coincidence, involved the overturning of a family court verdict by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebureauinvestigates.com\/stories\/2025-10-23\/mum-who-lost-custody-of-children-has-experts-evidence-overturned\">throwing out the testimony of \u201cunregulated expert\u201d Melanie Gill.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gill is a psychologist specialising in \u201cparental alienation\u201d, where one parent turns the children against the other usually through spurious stories of abusive behaviour. Gill has testified in hundreds of cases, many of which will now be thrown out, because \u201cnarcissist\u201d is a \u201cgendered label\u201d:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Just when I thought the harm in our family courts couldn\u2019t get any worse.<\/p>\n<p>Unregulated \u201cexperts\u201d like Melanie Gill have no place influencing decisions about children.<\/p>\n<p>Terms like \u201calienation\u201d and \u201cnarcissist\u201d are too often gendered labels aimed at mothers.<\/p>\n<p>This is a crisis. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QTitJEedEf\">https:\/\/t.co\/QTitJEedEf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Charlotte Proudman (@DrProudman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrProudman\/status\/1981266995682103769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Essentially, this creates an environment where mothers are incentivised to allege abuse and fathers can no longer respond with counter-allegations of \u201cparental alienation\u201d because it\u2019s sexist.<\/p>\n<p>All of this leads up to today\u2019s session of the Parliamentary Committee to discuss \u201creform\u201d of the family court. <a href=\"https:\/\/committees.parliament.uk\/event\/25375\">Beginning as I type this<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is a febrile atmosphere around these issues that\u2019s throwing up bizarre takes left and right. Suicides \u201clinked to\u201d abuse should be<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2025\/oct\/25\/enforce-law-when-suicide-linked-to-domestic-violence-say-uk-campaigners\"> \u201cinvestigated as homicides\u201d<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c8x14d1l9l1o\">Pardon murderers<\/a> because they were abuse victims.<\/p>\n<p>I can already see, in my mind\u2019s eye, the outraged comments.<em> \u201cWhy is Kit going in to bat for rapists and abusers?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>To which the only answer is<em> \u201cI\u2019m not.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m just aware of the fluid dynamics of definitions. I know how malleable language can be, and that \u201cdomestic abuse\u201d and \u201crape\u201d are as susceptible to to strategic redefinition as \u201cfar-right\u201d, \u201chate speech\u201d and \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d were before.<\/p>\n<p>After all, once you\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Keir_Starmer\/status\/1980936203684725149\">\u201cchanged the law to protect children from abusive parents\u201d<\/a>, you can set about changing what \u201cabusive\u201d means.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, is this all<em> really <\/em>about domestic abuse, protecting children or feminism?<\/p>\n<p>No, I don\u2019t think so. I think this is about inflating the role of the state in children\u2019s lives, camouflaged in gender politics designed to turn mothers and fathers against each other.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s about perpetuating the war on the cohesive family unit and increasing single-parent families, in the knowledge that single parents will be more likely to rely on state assistance and less able to resist over-reaching rules and regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, it is <a href=\"https:\/\/childlawadvice.org.uk\/information-pages\/school-attendance-and-absence\/#:~:text=Section%20444(1)%20Education%20Act,of%20up%20to%20%C2%A31%2C000.\">already illegal<\/a> to take your children out of school without permission in the UK. We also have the pending <a href=\"https:\/\/bills.parliament.uk\/publications\/62773\/documents\/7086\">\u201cChildren\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Bill\u201d<\/a> looming on the horizon and the introduction of \u201cbreakfast clubs\u201d making parents reliant on schools to feed their children.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also very important to note that, though the press and pundits are all talking about these issues entirely in terms of fathers and domestic abuse, the actual laws being changed do not get that specific, to quote the government again\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">If parents are <strong>thought to be<\/strong> a threat to their child\u2019s safety, involvement in their lives can be restricted, for example through courts ordering supervised contact, involvement limited to written communication, or by ordering that there should be no involvement at all.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t mention fathers or mothers, only parents. It doesn\u2019t specify domestic or sexual abuse; it just says \u201csafety\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Can you think of any large groups of parents in recent years who, for one very specific reason, may have been <em>\u201cthought to be a threat to their child\u2019s safety?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll give you a clue, it starts with an <em>\u201cA\u201d<\/em> and ends with <em>\u201cnti-vaxxers\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Should we trust any laws that undermine the right of the parent by assuming the state has responsibility for our children?<\/p>\n<p>No, I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/offguardian\">Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.subscribestar.com\/offguardian\">Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2025\/10\/28\/what-do-they-have-planned-for-family-court-reform\/\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Should we trust any laws that undermine the right of the parent by assuming the state has responsibility for our children?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317666,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317639\/revisions\/317666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}