Can Abbey’s heartbreaking story spark family law reform?

A dead teenage girl ‘betrayed’ by the system designed to protect her is the one reason we need to investigate and reform Australia’s family law system, writes domestic violence fighter SHERELE MOODY.

THERE are about 10 petitions on Change.org urging the Federal Government to overhaul Australia’s family law system including the Family Court of Australia.

The petitions focus on a range of areas including “parental alienation” and “equal rights for men”.

The petition that really grabs you by the heartstrings – and perfectly sums up what is wrong with our family law system – is titled “The Family Court allowed a convicted sex offender access to my little girl – now she’s dead”.

Just over 43,600 people have backed Abbey’s petition urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to roll out a royal commission into the Family Court.

Penned by Gill, a Western Australia mum whose 17-year-old daughter Abbey killed herself three years ago, the petition paints a dark and terrifying view of one of the family law system’s biggest failings – its insistence on forcing children to spend time with abusive parents to ensure “meaningful relationships” are maintained.

According to Gill, Abbey’s father was convicted of sexually assaulting the child’s best friend in 2002 and jailed for two years.

The abuse happened while the little female victim was sleeping over at Abbey’s house.

Gill says she wanted Abbey’s father to have minimal contact with her daughter for fear he would abuse her as well.

Chief Justice of Family Court Responds

However, Abbey’s mum says the “family court system” ruled the distressed mum was simply being a ‘hysterical woman’ and a ‘vindictive wife’ before allowing Abbey’s father to see the girl so she could have a “meaningful relationship with both parents”.

“They failed me, a protective mother, who in my attempt to protect my children from contact with their abusive father, was dismissed as a ‘hysterical woman’ and a ‘vindictive wife’,” she writes on the petition outline.

Just two months before she died, Abbey wrote a poem to her father, expressing the pain and anguish he forced upon her when he decided to abuse her.

“You took away all my innocence, left me dead inside,” the poem reads.

“I’m broken now, torn and ripped in pieces.

Read More: www.chinchillanews.com.au

By: Sherele Moody