Unspeakable Judicial Recklessness
Truly, the mind boggles.
Is it remotely possible that a judge could be so removed from the potential of harm for a very young child, that he unhesitatingly permits the child's father, accused of the murder of his wife, the child's mother, to have visitation rights with that child? Sounds like an ill-thought plot of a strictly amateur novelist hoping to create some friction from unrealistic fiction.
Would that it were so. "We are fearful for Ireland", her grandmother explained. "What I'd like to see is judges exercise more caution for the safety of children in cases like this." That is the grandmother of the five-year old child on the distaff side. Yvonne Harvey, mother of 28-year-old Chrissy Predham-Newman, has her perspective and she has the rule of law with her as well.
Recently passed legislation, Bill C-464, grants judges the initiative to deny bail in instances where the release of the accused in a murder has the potential to place a minor's safety at risk. Raymond Newman has been charged with second-degree murder in the 2007 death by stabbing of his ex-wife, Chrissy. Predictably, typically, they had been separated at the time of her death.
The bill in question so recently passed into law was based on an earlier tragic event where a woman who had murdered her husband, out on bail, took her 13-month-old child and committed suicide-by-drowning in 2003, taking her child with her in an act of suicide-infanticide.
The new law was enacted in an attempt to forestall any further, future such incidents, in the clear intention of seeking the protection of children from unstable parents. The bail hearing for this man charged with second-degree murder was the first of its kind to present after passage of the bill.
The judge at the bail hearing decided in his great, good wisdom to grant freedom to Raymond Newman while he awaits trial. And while he was at it, he decided he would proceed and reinstate visitation rights of the father accused of murdering his ex-wife, with their five-year-old child.
At the time of the mother's death, the child was just over a year old. Investigators, looking for the father, found the child in his care. The accused and his parents are in a custody fight with the family of the woman he is accused of having murdered. The child lived with her father and her father's parents for several years, until the Children's Aid Society, looking into the residence, revoked partial custody.
Which almost coincided with the conclusion in 2009, of the investigation into the mother's death which resulted in the father's being charged with his ex-wife's murder. The father, charged with murder, and his parents, have been battling for full custody of the child. The cost to the family of the child's mother, contesting custody, has mounted to $60,000 in legal fees.
That, under these extreme and horrible circumstances, the father could be considered fit and capable of looking after the child is beyond belief. That the presiding judge determined that he is, further strains credulity.
Is it remotely possible that a judge could be so removed from the potential of harm for a very young child, that he unhesitatingly permits the child's father, accused of the murder of his wife, the child's mother, to have visitation rights with that child? Sounds like an ill-thought plot of a strictly amateur novelist hoping to create some friction from unrealistic fiction.
Would that it were so. "We are fearful for Ireland", her grandmother explained. "What I'd like to see is judges exercise more caution for the safety of children in cases like this." That is the grandmother of the five-year old child on the distaff side. Yvonne Harvey, mother of 28-year-old Chrissy Predham-Newman, has her perspective and she has the rule of law with her as well.
Recently passed legislation, Bill C-464, grants judges the initiative to deny bail in instances where the release of the accused in a murder has the potential to place a minor's safety at risk. Raymond Newman has been charged with second-degree murder in the 2007 death by stabbing of his ex-wife, Chrissy. Predictably, typically, they had been separated at the time of her death.
The bill in question so recently passed into law was based on an earlier tragic event where a woman who had murdered her husband, out on bail, took her 13-month-old child and committed suicide-by-drowning in 2003, taking her child with her in an act of suicide-infanticide.
The new law was enacted in an attempt to forestall any further, future such incidents, in the clear intention of seeking the protection of children from unstable parents. The bail hearing for this man charged with second-degree murder was the first of its kind to present after passage of the bill.
The judge at the bail hearing decided in his great, good wisdom to grant freedom to Raymond Newman while he awaits trial. And while he was at it, he decided he would proceed and reinstate visitation rights of the father accused of murdering his ex-wife, with their five-year-old child.
At the time of the mother's death, the child was just over a year old. Investigators, looking for the father, found the child in his care. The accused and his parents are in a custody fight with the family of the woman he is accused of having murdered. The child lived with her father and her father's parents for several years, until the Children's Aid Society, looking into the residence, revoked partial custody.
Which almost coincided with the conclusion in 2009, of the investigation into the mother's death which resulted in the father's being charged with his ex-wife's murder. The father, charged with murder, and his parents, have been battling for full custody of the child. The cost to the family of the child's mother, contesting custody, has mounted to $60,000 in legal fees.
That, under these extreme and horrible circumstances, the father could be considered fit and capable of looking after the child is beyond belief. That the presiding judge determined that he is, further strains credulity.
Labels: Family, Justice, societal failures
posted by Pieface @ 6:14 PM
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