Plight of dads who are denied access to children

For separated fathers, the traditional familial comforts of Christmas time intensify the depression, loneliness and hurt of not being able to see their children.

Custodial mothers who flaunt and frustrate access orders are the effective gatekeepers of the child/father relationship.

Through bitter experience many separated fathers, faced with the seasonal closure of the family courts, realise that judges are effectively toothless, having no remedy to a breach of court access order short of incarcerating custodial mothers — an unlikely outcome and not of much use to children at Christmas.