Sheriff slams mum over invented sex abuse claim

A MOTHER has been attacked by a sheriff for trying to "coach" her seven-year-old daughter into accusing her estranged husband of sex abuse in a bid to win a bitter custody case.

The father of the girl had been seeking unsupervised contact with her and his two-year-old son through the courts.

The former bank worker had only been allowed two hours a week of supervised contact with his children after his wife accused him of abuse.

Sheriff Nigel Morrison QC ruled that the mother invented an "abusive situation" and attempted to get her daughter to repeat it to the authorities in a bid to win a divorce fight.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court also heard evidence that the mother believed in the views of Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist most famous for trying to kill artist Andy Warhol in 1968.

Solanas was the author of the SCUM manifesto (The Society for Cutting Up Men), and also believed that men want their daughters sexually.

The couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, both live in Edinburgh and had two children after marrying in 2003.

The pair had a volatile relationship and the mother left him in 2008, days after claiming that her daughter told her she had been touched sexually by her father.

The mother called the police and alleged her daughter told her of the behaviour, which took place during a game.

During the interview with detectives, the youngster denied anything improper had occurred, and a medical examination found no sign of abuse.

The court also saw evidence of e-mail exchanges between the mother, who is from Spain, and a Spanish lawyer in 2006 when the couple were experiencing "marital difficulties".

The lawyer wrote that there would be no jurisdiction for divorce in Spain, but added: "When you are together in Spain, even if just on holiday, report an abusive situation."

The lawyer said the allegations could lead to her winning custody and being granted a restraining order.

The mother later wrote back that: "I can't think of much more apart from just waiting for it to be resolved or until I decide to use one of those dirty tricks - the truth is that I've run out of ideas."

She denied in court that she had used such "dirty tricks" or manipulated her daughter, adding that the couple reconciled in 2006 and went on to have another child, but Sheriff Morrison ruled that the e-mails "did sow a seed in the defender's mind about the possibility of making an allegation of some sort. I think that the defender acted upon it".

Sheriff Morrison added: "On the evidence I consider that the defender, who had been thinking of divorcing the pursuer for two years and who had been given the idea of making up an abusive situation, made up the allegation of abuse and tried to coach (her daughter] to support it.

"I do not believe the defender's evidence that (her daughter] made an allegation to her that the pursuer sexually abused her."

Sheriff Morrison said the mother had shown "empathy" to the writings of Valerie Solanas but he did not think she was "motivated to accuse the pursuer of abusing his daughter on the basis of Solanas' views".

He ruled that the father should receive unsupervised contact with in the "best interest" of his children.