FATHER DOES NOT WANT HIS CHILD TO SPEND TIME WITH THE MOTHER DUE TO HER ALLEGED SUICIDAL TENDENCY WHILE INTOXICATED

Reeley & Deckard [2020] FCCA 2844 (5 October 2020)

This case involves a parenting proceeding concerning a child who has been spending equal time with both parents where the mother is alleged to have made a threat of suicide to the child while intosicated

Facts:

This is a parenting matter concerning a nine year old child who has been until recently spending, it seems, equal time with his mother and father.  They separated relatively recently. There was correspondence between the parties in August where the father was proposing a 50-50 shared care arrangement.

According to the father’s affidavit that the mother spoke to the child and said “I am going to sleep in the sea and I am not coming back.” The mother goes toon in her affidavit and say “I did not intend for this to be any threat of suicide. I was not intoxicated to excess as Mr Reeley claims.”

The mother said that she had had three glasses of wine before she said that.  The child interpreted that as a threat of suicide and rang his older brother in Brisbane and said to his older brother words to the effect  “I don’t want mum to kill herself.”  The older brother rang the father who called the police.  The police persuaded the mother to attend the B Hospital where she was examined and after a short time, she was discharged.

The mother also relied on an affidavit from the psychologist, Mr E.  Mr E said that he has seen the mother. He saw her twice, via video conference on 29 September 2020 and 4 October 2020.  He sets out his clinical observations.  He says he does not have any issues or concerns with the mother’s capacity to parent her son. He does not consider there is any risk of the child in her care.  The mother is a loving parent.  She is a fair and f irm disciplinary parent.  She has a supportive family, and she does not use illicit drugs.  She is highly protective of her son, concerned about his well-being and she is emotionally impacted by not being able to spend time with her son, and the son would benefit from spending both time with his parents. 

Issue: Should the child continue spending time with the mother despite the latter’s suicidal tendency while intoxicated?

Held:

The court is not satisfied, particularly given the description of what was said to the child as a  “suicidal gesture”, that Mr E has necessarily had the full history of this matter in front of him.  The court just don’t know because the affidavit does not tell the court , so it is  concerned about the weight it should give to that affidavit, and at the moment, the court will give it a limited weight because of the absence of what the court considers an appropriate history.

In the circumstances, the court doe not propose to make the order that the child spends time with his mother until further order, until there can be some further examination of these issues, particularly the issue of a suicide threat and intoxication.

Conclusion: Court orders that the child X  live with father until further order.