Mother Instigates Own Arrest to Expose Family Court Injustice
Found Guilty & Incarcerated without Bail
Amazingly, a British mother purposely instigated her own arrest and prosecution so she could use a criminal trial, open to the public, to expose injustice she and other mothers are experiencing in the family court system. Her three day trial occurred last week.
Unfortunately, the jury fell prey to the prosecutor’s lies and distortions and Kate* was found guilty of violating a gag order due to posting on social media about her Family Court case. She was taken into custody immediately as her daughter, now 18, watched in horror, sobbing.
Kate shouted to her daughter, “I love you, darling!” as she was being led away.
Kate is now imprisoned without bail until her sentencing in June. It is unclear what the sentencing guidelines in Newcastle [northeastern England] are for this offense.
GAG ORDER VIOLATIONS
Kate’s Family Court case began over a decade ago and she has been posting about it on social media for years. This has led to multiple short stints in jail, likely for civil contempt. However, this appears to be her first criminal conviction.
Kate’s daughter first disclosed sexual abuse by her father when she was five years-old. The father was criminally charged, but not convicted, in part due to the fact that CPS did not provide the evidence they had gathered. But it is unlikely he would have been convicted anyway as fathers rarely are.
A Family Court judge dismissed the daughter’s brave reports, shifting blame to Kate. The father was given custody of both of her children and he was subsequently allowed to alienate them from her. Per usual.
A few of Kate’s social media posts:
My children are being abused right now. Nobody would help.
Why are my children still living with our abuser and I’ve been alienated for years?
Strange there is no outrage when abused, innocent, protective mothers are locked up and the abusers get custody of their victims.
THE PROSECUTION
Kate was charged with 12 counts of violating a gag order. The prosecutor had to convince the jury that she had breached the restraining order without a “reasonable excuse” for doing so.
The prosecutor, in effect arguing the father’s position, used sexist tropes to discredit Kate to the jury. He told them she was a vindictive liar who had brainwashed her daughter to disclose sexual abuse, and that she was on a campaign to destroy the father’s life. He persuaded them that the father was the real victim, a long-standing sufferer of domestic abuse at the hands of Kate.
The prosecutor contended, “She held no genuine belief or otherwise that her ex was a paedophile. She made those posts in an utterly spiteful and vindictive manner.” He called her social media posts “wicked”. In closing, he told the jury Kate had told a “pack of lies” and there was no reasonable excuse for her to have breached the gag order.
Same ol’, same ol’. Only instead of a Family Court judge, it’s a prosecutor in Criminal Court lying and deeming the mother the liar.
THE DEFENSE
Kate told the jury that she had posted on social media in part because she was afraid for her children’s safety and wanted them protected. She also wanted the truth to be known about the abuse and about the failure of the Family Court system. She said it was her only way of having a voice.
Kate testified, “I was fearful and terrified of my children being hurt and worried about their safety.” She said she had been imprisoned and punished previously for daring to speak out about the failure of Family Court system to protect her children.
Kate’s daughter, now 18 and aged out of the system, testified that her father had molested her, but this was apparently overcome by the prosecutor’s accusation that the mother had brainwashed her. This, despite no evidence presented that Kate had done any brainwashing and credible evidence corroborating the abuse had, in fact, occurred. Evidence included pictures drawn for investigators when she first disclosed the sexual abuse.
Kate’s position was that the truth and her honest intentions provided the “reasonable excuse” necessary to be acquitted. Her defense attorney summed it up for the jury:
Since 2009, [mother] has been dismissed and turned down – by courts, professionals and by the authorities. What I’m asking you to do is something different…to believe her.
OH THE IRONY
Ironically, Kate was prosecuted for exposing the cover up of sexual abuse in Family Court, and the prosecution itself serves to cover up the cover up by discrediting her at trial and depriving her of her freedom—in furtherance of a future cover up.
The criminal justice system often works in tandem with the Family Court system to keep fathers entitled and mothers oppressed. It is the strongest arm of the systems, capable of taking women’s freedom away for a lengthy time. Even worse, a criminal conviction negatively impacts the mother’s career and financial well-being, which has repercussions the rest of her life.
The deprival of bail shows how intent the system is on punishing and silencing Kate. Depriving a citizen of the opportunity to post bail is supposed to be reserved for criminals who pose a danger to the community or if they are a flight risk. Kate is neither. But there is apparently a third category—women who dare challenge male privilege and authority in the family. An “uppity mother” provision perhaps?
SILVER LINING: The daughter has overcome the alienation by the father and appears to be very close with her mother again. Hopefully she has maternal relatives who help her while her mother is in jail so she does not have to return to her abuser. It is unclear as to what is going on with the son.
GRATITUDE FOR A CUSTODY CRISIS HERO
Kate is truly a hero of the Custody Crisis for her courage and perseverance in speaking out about the injustice she and other women face in family court—to the point of sacrificing herself to conviction and incarceration for potentially a long time.
If you’d like to show your gratitude and support for her in prison, you can send message to her via the Coalition at womenscoalitionintl@gmail.com Subject: Kate.
You can also comment, like and share the Substack and Facebook posts. This serves to raise awareness with the public as well.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR UPDATES…
NOTE: Information in this column was taken from an article in The Justice Gap by investigative journalist Hannah Summers. Thanks to her for covering this case and presenting the mother’s side of the story.
*not her real name: the reporter was not allowed to use her real name due to restrictions regarding child sexual abuse allegations.
IN OTHER NEWS
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BAY AREA MOTHERS
An investigative journalist has contacted The Women’s Coalition asking about mothers experiencing the Custody Crisis in California’s Bay Area. If your case is there and would like to have your story covered, please fill out this brief form.
You may choose to use a pseudonym, however the journalist needs to know your real name for verification of your case. [Note: it is not guaranteed your case will be chosen.]
ALL MOTHERS
Investigative journalism is critical for informing the public about what is going on in family courts around the world. If it were well established with the public that there is a Custody Crisis, there may have been one or more jurors who voted to acquit Kate.
So Women’s Coalition International is starting a database of mothers willing to speak out about their case. If you would like to share your story with a journalist, please fill out this brief form providing your name, email, county, state and country.
You will be contacted if a journalist in your area wants to do a story on the Custody Crisis using your case as an example.
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Family court judges deny women the right to mother their children. They deny children the right to be mothered. Family court judges alienate children from their mothers. They usually give custody of children to fathers that request it. Abusive fathers further alienate them. Children may or may not recover from their brainwashing. Criminal court and other agencies align themselves with these judges. Abusive fathers empowered by family court judges develop a cult-like following. People don't realize that this could happen to their loved ones and their complicity endangers them. Family court judges needlessly punish mothers and children. Mothers must continue to unite and speak out. Empowered mothers can help protect their children.
What GAG Order is about? Anyway it is like fascist order. Parental rights unalienable rights, constitutional rights are protected rights as rights to free speech. Why is it Ok to put mothers in concentration camps?