Can i have an absent fathers rights terminated?
Interesting question. I am in the process of revising family law at the moment. As long as you were married at the time of the birth then your previous husband will have ‘parental responsibility’. This means that, in theory, he can make decisions on the child’s upbringing and means that he can apply to the court to get a contact or a residence order. However, as the child is living with you, he has no right to influence the the way in which the child is brought up. If he wanted to interfere he would need to get a ‘specific issue order’, but given his history of abuse it is unlikely that the court would place much weight on what he wants. And in any case, the court will only order what is in the ‘child’s best interest’. So far as contact goes, you can refuse him contact and make him apply to the court. The court has generally allowed some contact to even abusive fathers. Often this will be supervised, even paedophilic fathers have been able to get limited contact. The court ‘assumes’ th
