ABSTRACT
Assessing the nature of children’s wishes to see their fathers in cases of protracted litigation where violence, accusations of sexual abuse or issues of mental health are involved, is a complex process. Fathers, pursuing contact with their children, are often also in pursuit of a missing part of themselves, and irrational, passionate and extreme narratives and behaviours are commonplace; as the activities of the organisation ‘Families need Fathers’ have shown us. The Court however, asks for an assessment of whether contact is in the child’s best interests, not the father’s.
