In the Family Court of Australia at Newcastle on 18 December 2017, Justice Austin handed down his judgment in Khalil & Khalil [2017] FamCA 1081
Elizabeth Picker from our Chambers represented the Applicant Father in the four (4) day hearing only 2 weeks before the judgment was delivered.
In this case the Mother was an alcoholic who had been through rehab multiple times. The father was illiterate.
The children had not spent time with the Mother for thirteen months.
| The issues, findings and orders were:
Parental responsibility – where the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility does not apply due to family violence perpetrated between the parties – where the parties’ relationship is too volatile for them to share the exercise of parental responsibility – where the residential parent must have exclusive parental responsibility for the children – Ordered the father shall have sole parental responsibility for the children With whom a child lives – where it is not possible for the children to have meaningful relationships with both parents – where the children are strongly opposed to spending time with the mother – where there are concerns regarding the mother’s ability to maintain her sobriety – where the psychological harm of reversing the children’s residence is liable to exceed the harm they suffer by staying with the father – Ordered the children shall live with the father – where no orders are made for the children to spend time or communicate with the mother Family violence – where both parties engaged in family violence and have criminal convictions for assaulting the other – where the children are at risk of serious psychological harm – where the mother is alleged to have sexually abused the youngest child |