A WOMAN failed to obtain sole custody of her daughters in Cork Circuit Court, following her separation from her husband, according to the latest issue of Family Law Matters.
The magazine contains reports on 17 family law cases, covering custody and access, guardianship, judicial separation and divorce, the division of assets and Hague Convention cases.
The woman, who cannot be identified, had left the family home when the relationship between her and her husband broke up.
The couple’s two young daughters remained in the family home with the husband and she moved into a house which needed a lot of work. She told the court that her husband had agreed to give the children back to her when the house was done up. He denied this.
She had her daughters for the weekends, she told the court, but her previous solicitor had told her she was entitled to have them full-time and one Sunday, so she did not return them to her husband. Her husband then took her to court, and the court ruled that he was the main carer and formalised her weekend access. She was later granted a weeknight’s access.
She was now asking the court to transfer primary care and control to her. Her husband claimed that she had left the family home because she was having an affair. She said the marriage was over before the affair began.
The wife gave an account of the deterioration of the marriage, claiming her husband had not offered any support when she had a miscarriage.
She said her husband had agreed the girls would move in with her some months after she moved out. She also told the court she was planning to return to college in October.
Asked by the judge how she would mind the children, she said she would be in college during the hours they would be in school.
The husband’s barrister said his client vehemently disagreed with the wife’s version of events. He had organised his life around the children, and had never agreed they should live with the wife. It had been agreed she would have them at weekends and one night during the week.
“I have proven for the last three years I have a secure relationship with my children. They are very happy and my sister and parents are a great support,” he told the court.
The judge said the most important consideration was the welfare of the children. He gave the couple joint guardianship and custody, with primary care and control to the father, and access to the mother from 3pm on Friday until Monday at 6.30pm, and every second week during the school holidays. He said the court would review the matter again in a year’s time.
“I don’t want to hear of any fighting in the meantime, as the girls are getting older they’ll need a strong relationship with their mother,” he said.