Jailed for waving at my daughter (UK)

Daily Mail UK ^ | 6-26-07 | JENNY JOHNSTON and RACHEL HALLIWELL

[Bladerunnuh]

'On my first night in jail I shared a cell with a murderer,' he says. 'It was so intimidating. The next few weeks just blurred into one long nightmare. Every waking hour I pined for my girls, wondering if I would ever see them again.

'When I got out, the nightmare continued. It took another year for me to convince the courts I should be allowed to see them at all. Life was an endless round of court hearings. It was a wretched existence. Time and again I'd be facing a new judge and having to re-tell the story. To me, it was a matter of life and death, but to them, it seemed I was just another pushy, undeserving father who was trying to interfere in his former wife's life.

'I was so messed up by it all that I had a vasectomy to ensure I couldn't find myself in that position again.'

Finally, five years after the separation, Mark was granted permission to see his daughters. He was excited about the

[DanielLongo]

Wow! Just WOW! I bet if I asked I would find similar cases here in the U.S. I don’t know that I would have been as patient or as civil as this man was, but it paid off in the end. I suppose that is a lesson in itself.

[Designer]

Try to find someone with the same world view yourself. That includes religion, of course.

[JamesP81]

taken another way, he constantly stalked his ex, hanging around her house at all hours, trying to turn the kids against her, timeing his activities to be there when he was more likely to contact them. he wouldn’t leave her alone.

The children usually judge the parents in these cases. I would ask yourself: who are the children living with now? That alone tells me all I need to know.

[JamesP81]

But sure, every now and again, you get a zinger thrown at you from left field.

I think that's more common than is believed in general.

[Mr. Brightside]

You put the least informative part of the article in the excerpt. It made no sense with the headline you posted.

I hate it when they do that. Some people think that if they exerpt, that they MUST use the first few paragraphs, instead of the relevant ones.

[Red Badger]

It’s not clear why there was a no-contact order in the first place

A common tactic. One spouse, usually the one with the kids, gets their schiester to get a "non contact" order from some gullible judge. Then the parent tells the kids that the other parent doesn't care about them, that's why they haven't seen them.......

[gcruse]

” This is the real casualty of divorce. The day it happens the children stop being children.”

Yes, there’s nothing better for kids than two parents who hate each other staying in an embattled relationship “for the children.”

[Publius6961]

Misleading Headline Alert!

I don't know the whole story but, after that introduction to it, I have no interest.

[Blood of Tyrants]

And people wonder why some men are driven to murder their ex-wives.

[JerriBlank]

“It sounds like he violated a no-contact order.”

Exactly. He’s acting like this just happened because he waved, but it sounds like he was going out of his way to be in places his ex would be, specifically to wave.. after being ordered not to.

I doubt it’s easy to remain fully in control of yourself with emotions running as high as they can in situations like this, but... in some ways, it’s cut and dry what he did.

Very slanted article, and a lot of this is not adding up.

[JerriBlank]

“And people wonder why some men are driven to murder their ex-wives.”

You believe this story is as one-sided as the guy is making it sound?

Not to mention, he basically admits he violated a court order.

[TBP]

H?ow dare this dad try to be a dad?

[Bluegrass Federalist]

all we have here is his version. taken another way, he constantly stalked his ex, hanging around her house at all hours, trying to turn the kids against her, timeing his activities to be there when he was more likely to contact them. he wouldn’t leave her alone. there’s another side to this that we aren’t seeing.

Wrong. We have the child's view, and to me it leaves little conclusion other than that the wife is EVIL:

'When Dad disappeared out of our lives, we just thought he had stopped loving us. I was certain I'd done something wrong. 'The first time we saw him waving to us as we went to school, I was thrilled. I remember thinking: "He still cares."

'Every morning, Mum would tell us we shouldn't look at him - that he was a bad man - yet we couldn't help but grin when we saw him. It made our day.' It was impossible for Lisa's mother to go a different route.

WHEN her father went to prison, no one explained to Lisa why. 'Mum said: "You see - I told you he was bad." I was ten years old. As far as I knew, you had to do something pretty awful to go to prison.'

[Antoninus]

Yes, there’s nothing better for kids than two parents who hate each other staying in an embattled relationship “for the children.”

"Hating each other?" You act like the individuals in question are 2 year olds who can't control themselves. If they are actually adults who were serious enough to get married in the eyes of God, one would think they'd be capable of suppressing their own selfish and petty wants and desires for the sake of the children that they brought into the world.

Once you sire children, your life is no longer your own. And that's as it should be. They are the greatest blessing--only a sick society sees them as a curse or a bone of contention.

[Blood of Tyrants]

133 trips to court in 10 years? Yes, I believe the guy.

[buccaneer81]

You believe this story is as one-sided as the guy is making it sound?

Yes. I've been there too.

How much child support do you steal from your ex?

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Confusing situation, but probably a case of father-hate by courts.

[Excellence]

Mark thought he had a happy marriage, too. The only difficulty was his strained relationship with his mother-inlaw.

The problem.

I told my husband he needed to choose between his wife and children and his mommy and daddy. He packed his bags and left.