A family court judge has accepted the recommendation of an unregulated expert and ruled that a child should be removed from her mother’s care after finding the mother made an “entirely false allegation” about the child’s father.
The woman will initially have only supervised contact with her daughter, who will be transferred to live with her father against the girl’s wishes. The decision follows findings about the mother’s “attitude” towards him and the adverse impact of that on the girl of secondary school age.
Three experts assessed the family including Karen Woodall, a psychotherapist who is not registered with any regulatory body and who the mother tried, unsuccessfully, to have removed from her case. Woodall suggested the mother should have only “very restricted supervised contact” with her daughter who would require ongoing therapy.