A boy who was taken from his mother at the age of nine due to a ‘draconian’ court order will be reunited with her in time for Christmas after almost six years of separation.
The teenager, now aged 15, was removed from his mother’s care along with his sister after an unregulated psychologist, Melanie Gill, advised a family court that their mother had ‘turned the children against their father’, according to reports The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
The siblings were sent to live with their father in 2019 before the judge banned any further contact with their mother – which she described as ‘unthinkably draconian’.
But the boy will be able to see his mother, Erin (not her real name), this Christmas after walking away from his father and hiring a lawyer to launch a legal bid in the Supreme Court over new guidelines around parental alienation allegations, which state that experts should not be used to look for parental alienation.
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In 2020, it was ruled that Erin had ‘actively’ alienated her children from their father.
But in her filing this year, her lawyer did not address the suggestion that she was “responsible for the harm” caused to her son.
During the hearing, Madam Judge Lieven said the restraining order was ‘very strongly based’ on Gill’s evidence.
She said Erin’s son should stay with a family friend and resume contact with his mother.
Erin filed separately six years ago to reopen the lawsuit’s findings.
A Supreme Court ruling earlier this year raised concerns about unregulated psychological evidence in family cases.
Gill had provided expert advice in more than 150 family law cases, often involving allegations of parental alienation.
The High Court ruled that her evidence was ‘unreliable’ and ‘should not have been relied upon’ in a parental alienation case in which Gill described the mother as a ‘narcissist’ who alienated her children from their father.
As a result, two children were removed from her care and she received biweekly supervised contact for many years.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that questions are being raised about Gill’s biases and diagnoses following a joint investigation with Tortoise Media.
She claims to have provided evidence in 200 cases.
Her advice led to at least twelve children being taken from their mothers.
But Gill has had her evidence thrown out in a separate case.
Mrs Justice Judd of the High Court ruled last month that testimony given by Gill did not meet the necessary evidentiary standards.
The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales has since called for a review of all of Gill’s cases involving the removal of children from a parent’s care.
Erin’s lawyer said the family court’s reliance on advice from unregulated experts was a “developing national scandal”.
Nearly six years since she last saw her son, Erin had a brief visit from him in November.
She told TBIJ: ‘It was great to see him again. He was very affectionate and kept saying “I love you and I missed you”. It was very moving.
‘He left as a little boy and came back as a big, sturdy boy with a deep voice.’
The night he visited her, the police took him away around 4 a.m. due to the existing restraining order.
He was placed in foster care after refusing to return to his father.
The last time Erin saw her son before his visit last month was six years ago, when he was removed from her care.
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