Armchair Diagnosing; Trauma or Disorder- What becomes of victims of wrongful diagnosis and their taken children? It is time to look carefully at the damage inflicted and redress
@UKHouseofLords
#VAWG
@womensaid
#ReC
@LDNVictimsComm
Here’s what I’ve learned from 11 years in the family courts and as a victim of domestic violence and abuse: The human mind and body can withstand almost anything if it knows when the pain will end. But if you remove Hope, then you will break the human spirit and soul. Hope.
I’ve yet to come across a single case where the person claiming to be parentally alienated hasn’t actually committed abuse against the other parent and children. In fact every case I’ve seen is abusers claiming they are alienated. EVERY case.
@MyCafcass
@MoJGovUK
@SocialWorkEng
#16DaysOfActivism
Quick reminder to every social worker, judge, magistrate and Cafcass worker…. Victims of domestic abuse present almost identically to mentally ill people. Because trauma and abuse cause psychological damage. Stop blaming victims for struggling with abuse.
#DA
For the next few days, or for as long as it takes, I’ll be tweeting all the insane and ridiculous things from real court cases. Quotes from judges, social workers, abusers and parenting assessments and Police. Let’s see what the public make of inside secret family court
#RETWEET
Make this make sense to me 🧵
@JudiciaryUK
&
@MyCafcass
say I cannot see my children ever again until I complete 3-5 years of very specific therapy.
@NHSKentMedway
refuse to provide this treatment… Because there is nothing wrong with me other than trauma & grief - I’ve pleaded
#FamilyCourt
Twitter- please can everyone comment on why these poor children must be shuttled constantly back and forth without any stability or continuity between 2 ‘homes’ and not being able to affiliate with ONE stable base - what’s the positive research saying 50/50 is best?!
Very surprised and touched to be recognised and shortlisted for this award, alongside a lot of other bigger names and prolific publishers. It’s important we don’t lose sight of the power one little voice, even if it’s a whisper, can have.
#EndViolenceAgainstWomen
#AmberHeard
@DrJessTaylor
I see this time and time again sadly. And I also hear the sadder part, just because he did that *last year* doesn't mean he'll do it again, she/they need to move on - the old "its historic" that CAFCASS/POLICE and SWE use to wipe clean everything that happened before right now.
“Why is C-PTSD Misdiagnosed as BPD?” (Or NPD) — Dr. Betsy Usher. This very commonly befalls women as they present extremely differently to men when it comes to trauma. Our trauma looks like BPD. Family courts are getting this very wrong.
Real question- why is Family Court accepting Domestic Violence perps just do a Perpetrators course for 6-12 weeks and they are transformed. But if a mother is accused of Alienation- there is NO course programme they are offered for their redemption? Surely this is a simple fix?
For anyone that was ever in any doubt… Your abuser will not be punished by the justice system you have ill-gotten faith in. No punishment for them is coming, especially not in Family Court. You, the victim will be punished for talking about it though.
#FixFamilyCourt
@DrProudman
“His sentence would have been 10 years had he not plead guilty” Headline is misleading. His jail sentence is 4 years. He’s on supervision for 3 years post-release. Why if he’s definitely guilty does he get such a commuted sentence??! 4 years for raping a girl.
I get soooo sick of MRAs demanding that all women who make an allegations are liars. That all men are “falsely accused”, all absolutely innocent! It’s the biggest threat to society
#VAWG
. Scroll through for exact official figures
#FalseAccusations
Ladies, mothers, women, please don’t fall for the myth of “common law marriage” - people who are unmarried have no financial or legal responsibility to their partner. So sad when you hear of people together for 25+ years and he’s provided no share of the pension, business or home
Our gratitude to
@BarnettAdrienne
for putting into words the heartbreak for domestic abuse victims. There is no justice. There is no healing or closure. There is no truth. “The past is erased. The erasure forgotten. The lie becomes the truth” G. Orwell
#domesticabuse
#justice
Judge: we don’t have time to hear the mothers evidence, however, we have the fathers submissions so that will suffice M: * is this a f*ing joke?!* Your honour…? Judge: no
We can whip an old dear into court sharpish for non-payment of tv licence fee- but you try enforcing a court order in family court or raising a DVA case against your ex. Try prosecuting for stalking or vandalism. No chance!!! It’s not a justice system - it’s a banking system.
TV Licensing waited just 10 days before drafting court papers for this south London customer services assistant
Just lost her job, health issues, didn't realise the licence had expired, she says
Now she has a criminal conviction & a £176 court bill
It's a system without a heart
Mother: These are the texts of the child disclosing dreadful abuse from the father Father: Mother made those up. Judge: We don’t need to see these made up texts!
10 years this year…. What a shambolic waste of life and over £500,000, 2 destroyed childhoods and he still wants to try and see my imprisoned… STILL. Will not let it go, will not permit any contact, will not tell the children the truth, will not admit the violence and rapes.
I get contacted by so many lovely mums who say, I’d love to openly support/RT/comment but I can’t, they are gagged by the system, or stalked by ex’s, held to ransom by social workers and oppressed into silence. Each one says “I could have been you, I’m behind you, keep fighting”
I’ve gotten a lot of whataboutism in the past few days from the Men’s Rights groups and men aggressively and rudely insisting that women are all the problem, all liars and all abusers. It’s an extremists stance to take…
#FamilyCourt
#Abuse
#MensRights
Know whats wrong with the family courts? (besides everything...) is that there is no public appetite for the tragic stories and the hundreds of thousands it affects until they themselves become a victim of it. Unless a child is killed, there is no coverage on it's atrocities
#law
@sammywoodhouse1
There’s a lot that don’t even have any criminal record but are exceedingly heavy handedly being placed on the register as dangerous to children because their exposure to DV has been deemed a future risk by social services. It’s horrific. Guilty of crimes not even committed
Thought for the day: Family Court is Not about telling the truth, or being honest. (This goes for all parties, victims especially) It is your job to say and act the exact way the court and professionals want you to. You must pass their Test (but don’t know what’s on the exam 🤷♀️)
Can we start talking about the parental alienation INDUSTRY as an entire colossal creation depending almost exclusively on the “movement” of children under quasi-legal circumstances for profit. Every aspect of parental alienation is designed by abusers to mitigate and excuse
Whoever is going through family court I cannot explain this enough- your pain does not count. Period. As an abused woman you have no weight. As an abused mother you have even less. Do not try and explain your pain to the wrong people. Tell a friend, a therapist a doctor, whoever
We want our children back. We committed no crime other than speaking the truth against our violent torturing abusers. Our children have been denied their real true safe parents. “Experts” enabling this should be tried for war-crimes against humanity.
#abuse
#truth
@UNSRVAW
After almost 40 years of traumatizing and destroying the lives of women and children, the go-to
#DARVO
term which was created as a defense tactic for abusive fathers, is now being recognized as the destructive term it is.
I’ve been hearing incredible things about the Spanish government making Parental Alienation illegal in every form of custody cases.... now where are all the legislators and activists on this jumping on board and bringing that here?
@Fuzzycurlz
@DrProudman
@billiepiper
You have entirely fabricated the “no reason” part. If it was without any reason whatsoever, he could very simply apply to the courts. Fact appears to be, there will be good reason, supported by professionals with advice.
The older I get and the more I experience the
@MoJGovUK
family courts, the more apparent it becomes that women are always accused of having gone “mad”. What they have actually become is knowledgeable, powerful and truthful. And that upsets a lot of people
@MyCafcass
and abusers.
🧵Look at the amount of press , real experts, journalists, chambers, legal organisations and bloggers who are talking about the insidious breach of human rights by courts using Melanie Gill and the unqualified diagnosis she makes to tear children from victims of domestic abuse
I’ve begged, I’ve screamed, I’ve cried and cried, I’ve said without the treatment I’ll never be allowed to see them. I’ve been begging for 3 STRAIGHT YEARS. Their response
@GregClarkMP
is that I don’t have any mental illness, just substantial and soul destroying separation grief
Is this grotesque abuse of mental health
@MentalAbuseUK
? Can anyone understand the impact now, of Judges accepting insane diagnosis from
#UnregulatedExperts
in court who have zero mental health or psychological skills. So, the grief, pain, sorrow, loss, devastation continue
Why do so many
@MyCafcass
guardians threaten care proceedings on mothers for “potential future risk of emotional harm for possible parental alienation” ? Real question for
#legaltwitter
Why is
@JudiciaryUK
allowing this utter insanity!!
@SheraFamily
Today I celebrate 🎉 Decree Absolute Day. 6 years later he’s caused more devastation, destruction and decimation than I thought possible- I was told at every point, “but there is no abuse possible now” My home(s), my jobs, my income, and… my children all Gone.
#DomesticAbuse
This is not gender neutral “parental alienation” it is a war on motherhood by abuse ex fathers who delude themselves and others they are the injured party. Every survivor of male abuse with children will agree with this. This is post-separation abuse at its most powerful
@toffee_otter
@miss_teabaggins
All the drugs and chemicals that are being passed on to this child are safe?? Women who breastfeed usually even abstain from coffee and mild pain killers because it’s bad for baby and is passed on. Where is the published peer reviewed research that says this is safe??
@DrJessTaylor
@ALewanewsky
💯 agree with what you’ve said, but have you noticed that whilst they are used to explain all and every court decision to protect all types of abusers and perpetrators but are used in such a persecutory manner to women and mothers against them. They alleviate men, persecute women
I am now writing a full piece on the torture and fraud being committed by unregulated hacks in the family court. This will be published before MacFarlanes judgement and will make explicitly clear what has defrauded Judges & been enabled by
@MyCafcass
@sra_solicitors
#FamilyCourt
@rachelh1711
@grace_hawthorn
@BluskyeAllison
They are 💯 using similar persecutory tactics in family courts to achieve this very thing- but that’s all private and secret and no one can talk about it!!We are not mothers, but birthers. The rhetorics of witch trials are echoing deep around the justice system right now 🧹🧙♀️
@crimlawuk
Yes, me and my children. Along with all the other victims of unregulated and unregistered and unqualified “specialist psychologists” in the family court diagnosing personality disorders and labelling mothers “harmful” because they are victims of male violence.
@crimlawuk
I should imagine anyone who has been through family court or any justice system of violence against women… less than 1% conviction rate for rape in CPS and zero acknowledgment of any abuse in family court at all… any victim of abuse has been failed by UK justice.
@JudiciaryUK
This is the reality of the Family Court System. I read a transcript of a woman, an imposter pretending to be an expert psychologist- her answers on domestic Rape, assault and violence were that is has *NO* impact on custody or children’s matters. Stop being FOOLED
@JudiciaryUK
If you ever hear something that sounds so utterly preposterous and completely devoid of moral, ethical, logical value- I guarantee you’ve been in family court as an abused mother! Sometimes I cry for the atrocities I know are happening.
#FamilyCourt
#Abuse
by
@MoJGovUK
HER NAME IS MELANIE GILL. Her partners are Raphael Lopez De Soto and Chip Chimera. She is unqualified and unregulated. She is a radical fundamentalist who ruins mothers and childrens lives.
#ParentalAlienation
#UnregulatedExperts
Today a judge who fully agreed that a so-called “psychologist” & family court “expert” was indeed a full on phoney fraudster with NO qualifications, No professional registration or license, would NOT be named in the judgement as it might harm the individual! 😡
Someone needs to explain how this is anything other than the most insidious human rights violation. My GP and no no REGULATED psychologist will recognise the
#diagnosis
or recommended therapy- at all. The therapy cost private is £90,000 and I should add this
Future Risk of Harm…. Can anyone point me to the research that says losing one protective parent creates lower risk of future harm by being reprogrammed to live with the abusive parent who has claimed to be alienated to get out of DA allegations. I can’t find it?
@MyCafcass
???
We cannot continue to torture children and victims of domestic violence to enforced separation until both of them undertake drastic therapies to alter their stories of abuse.
#PivotToThePerpertrator
#DomesticAbuse
kills people. But grief and separation kills people too
@UK_ACP
We simply cannot go quietly that
#UnregulatedExperts
are performing parentectomies and causing suicide inducing grief and harm to the public. Hundreds of children wrongly removed because someone POSING as an expert psychologist diagnosed their mothers & them as disordered.
Some of Melanie Gills cases ripped children from traumatised victims of SEVERE domestic abuse, not even allowed to say goodbye to each other and never ever ever ever saw them again. 3 whole years of headache incomprehensible to most.
#justice
#MelanieGill
A vote on Sarah Everard Inquiry was scheduled for 12:30pm - in a bid to ensure it wasn’t passed and the inquiry wasn’t correctly supported to ensure accurate reporting. Are you listening? That’s the sound of silencing and corruption in disguise as JUSTICE
@soniasodha
Who was responsible for the children? Were any of the parents involved? I find it strange to think how little primary school age children could be out all night and no one bothered or cared or noticed? Were they in the care system? Who was supposed to be keeping them safe?!
🧵1/as someone who has worked with children for decades, trying to teach a child anything to recite, remember and recall it accurately is impossibly hard. The suggestion that all these Mothers are “brainwashing” their children with ridiculous notions of false disclosures is 🤯
@AndrewCicchett1
It’s what PA was fundamentally designed to do, at its very central core, the key surviving tenet is to discredit mothers and their children. That’s it. Nothing else. PA in a nutshell. Thanks for attending the TED talk 😛
Being in family court, recovering from family court, trying to rehabilitate your life after abuse, all these things will have an enormous affect on your mental health and personal wellbeing. And the courts & professionals know and EXPLOIT this. Try not to let them see it.
According to todays hearing ANYONE at all, with NO qualifications at all, can not only call themselves a psychologist but also a family court expert …. I’m here-forth a family court psychologist according to
#MacFarlane
!
#MelanieGill
#Law
@guardian
@nomoreassaults
But if you speak truthfully about your abuser and the abuse, you will be accused of parental alienation and have your children removed from your care and given to your abuser. Even if you don’t speak about abuse and social services or courts find our- you’re still guilty of PA!
Who wants to talk abou the High Court judgement published today - 10 weeks after hearing - about
#MelanieGill
and
#UnregulatedExperts
? Shall I start? If you don't have the qualifications to be regulated, that means you shouldn't be an expert in family court. There. I said it.
@AnnOlivarius
@metpoliceuk
I don’t think being off duty makes the slightest bit of difference. Why should it?! We wouldn’t say this about a doctor who butchered someone “oh but they weren’t at work or on duty at the time” it’s diminishing the severity of the crime and the perpetrators abuse of power
@SheraFamily
A very poorly neglected, misunderstood reaction to these traumatised parents; it doesn't just end when the case ends, same way that the abuse doesn't end when you leave! The courts are exacerbating this enormously tying victims to a lifetime of ongoing trauma and disorientation
The
@JudiciaryUK
idiocy of appointing someone completely unqualified and unregulated. The resulting trauma for my children and I will last FOREVER. This is a living death sentence. How can I both have a severe diagnosis and not have anything wrong other than a wrongful diagnosis?
To all those who have lost their whole lives through family court system attack, an abusive father who has destroyed a mothers life- you are not alone. You are not crazy. You are not a liar. Your justice system failed you. The law failed you.
@SocialWorkEng
and
@MoJGovUK
failed.
When One parent wants War, that’s the parent that wins. Because whoever doesn’t want War is screwed. By the time you’re defending yourself, even whilst pleading for Peace, you’re already at War and the abuser is in his happy place- abusing you. You’re crying, kids upset -
Someone who forged a medical degree to practice as a psychologist is jailed - Yet someone who forges a CV, has NO medical degree or qualifying undergrad is perfectly fine to be a psychologist in family courts destroying lives?
@JudiciaryUK
@DominicRaab
“Not one out of a million witches would be accused or punished, if regular legal procedure were followed. It is foolish to believe that this murder of justice and persecution of women does not still exist and happen daily” Family court is still persecuting witches
#familycourt
Do we get participation and graduation badges for Family Court? Asking for a friend. I wonder what colours each year of misery survived would be. Would number 18 be the Grand Sensei of Family Court? The wisest of all the mothers, applauded for endurance and bravery?
#FamilyCourt
I cannot stress this enough for every family court user and family court ‘professional’. Let victims heal, protect them, give them space, support and believe that they deserve life away from their abuser. And stop giving their children to said abuser.
@MyCafcass
ARE the enablers
Anyone with any common sense and a good parent could tell you this… and yet- every MRA and every parental alienation “expert” will tell you the exact opposite. And over the last 20 years
@MyCafcass
and
@csjthinktank
have brainwashed the family justice system to adopt this BullS*
So, The entire medical
@NHS
do not recognise the horrific diagnosis given to me and accepted by the courts as valid at all. But the court does not accept the
@NHS
medical response as valid either? No private psychologist in the country will agree to the
@KentSocialCare
terms
For those with and without their children, you are still a mother even if your children are separated from you. Self care and compassion healing is the most important thing for separation grief
#Motherhood
#MentalHealthAwareness
#FamilyCourt
Your Identity is beyond motherhood
@DrProudman
Because when governments realised that women Can work, earn, support themselves, And raise their children safely and happily, have autonomy, the men got very very upset about realising that we can completely do without abusive, nasty, controlling, angry, rude men. 🤷♀️
71% of children detained in 2021-2022 were girls. Why on earth is the detained amount of young people so disproportionately female? What is this saying about female mental health or the perception of females?
#women
#girls
#mentalhealth
Family court and battling for your children’s happiness is like continual root-canal work. Horrifically agonising, pain in the head, makes you cry, dribble and leaves you maimed. And yet- when divorcing a very abusive man, absolutely required on a daily basis. 🦷
#ratherpullteeth
@DrProudman
I’ve heard you correct a judge who insisted on keep calling you Miss Proudman and insisted upon calling the fraudulent ‘expert’ Dr even though they had no valid qualifications and no doctorate at all. They do it to antagonise women. I’m sure of it.
The difficulty lots of mothers (predominantly) face is they are the real face of ‘alienation’ once their abusers have taken custody of their children from them. If domestic abuse wasn’t systematically ignored by
@MyCafcass
and Judges then we wouldn’t be seeing this backlash.
We are calling on the government and support this as a fully recognised vital piece of reform work for Family Courts. Restoring any faith in such a broken system that has vigorously undermined mothers using psychopathology as causing grave miscarriages of Justice
@LDNVictimsComm
There needs to be an investigation into forced or coerced psychiatric or psychological evaluations of women and girls in criminal and family courts.
At present, no matter what the woman or girl says, she will be subjected to prejudice...
Can anyone explain to me why the Men’s Rights Activists and Fathers rights groups are so abhorrently aggressive and yet all claim to be non-abusers? And why do mothers all toe the line in fear and are losing this battle with the family courts? Anyone?
#mensrights
#familycourt
The Children are both teenagers- so completely 3-5 years of therapy would mean…. They will be full adults by the time it’s completed. Someone
@JudiciaryUK
make this make sense as anything other than BARBARIC
@hansummers
and
@C4Dispatches
have covered cases about this
@UNSRVAW
We already decriminalised Rape, why not go the whole hog and complete walk all over the Domestic Abuse bill and destroy the scraps of justice that hang on by idiosyncratic threads! No wonder women are up in arms. We are left to the wolves and if you complain- they will blame YOU
Armchair Diagnosing; Trauma or Disorder? What will be done to restore justice for the lost lives, childhoods and victims of domestic abuse and Melanie Gill?
@ukhumanrightsb
@JusticeGap
@UNSRVAW
@CommissionerDA
1/5 🧵Many people now know the term Parental Alienation, but they don’t perhaps know the depths and misuse of it that actually occur- Even when a child is having 40/60 or even 50/50 contact, an abuser can still claim they are alienated. How? Well, according to
#UnregulatedExperts
@custodypeace
That nothing you thought you knew about “Justice” is true and that your perception of Justice is a socio-political construct that does not respect any testimony of women or children if it conflicts with that of an abusive father. And like Fight Club, you can’t talk about it!
“Domestic abusers to be more closely monitored and registered” Yes- but only if one can secure criminal convictions. Public needs to know, loud & clear, Family Court does not punish or prosecute any domestic abuse. It is not interested.
#familylaw
#VAWG
Think a few people may have missed this debate scheduled on
#CAFCASS
and
#FamilyCourt
happening today. If you’re planning to attend in the public gallery be prepared for a long wait queuing. Give yourself a couple of hours just fyi
#Parliament
Something I hear multiple times a day from exasperated women in family court facing parental alienation allegations is this: “All the professionals are lying/his barrister is a liar/ I’m being set-up/CAFCASS are bullying my children / my Judge is believing him and not me… cont.
This is what post-separation financial abuse looks like. My ex would go months without paying then pay again. He would always not pay Nov & Dec to ensure the children had few presents from me then spoil them at his home. Wealthiest are the worst for this.