After Christmas, Sarah’s solicitor expressed his objections at her decision to pull out of the Christmas eve visitation arrangements, insisting that it might back-fire in the long term and weaken her stance in court.

            “Oh for cryin’ out loud!  You’d’ve done exactly the same thing if you’d been faced with the risk of your kids being taken off to tim-buk-too, never to be seen again,” Sarah blasted.

            “Well, that’s a bit of an over-reaction,” Jimmy O barked back, “He wouldn’t’ve got far lugging a couple of babies off with him on the run.”

            “And who’s going to stop him?  The police?” Sarah scoffed.  “Kids get snatched and shunted off somewhere all the time.  It happens.  God knows what becomes of them.  Some end up dead.  It’s too late then.  Greg Potter is deranged, an alcoholic psychopath, obsessed with revenge.  Surely the court doesn’t expect me to put my babies’ lives at risk?”

            “They probably won’t see it that way; they’ll view you as being hostile and awkward and a control freak.”

            “Oh that’s typical, isn’t it, turning it all back on to me.  What a cop out.  Are justices held accountable for all the kids they abuse by forcing them to spend time with unfit fathers?  No, are they hell.”

            “Like I said I’m only giving you my advice.  Residence and contact issues should not be about winning but we need a careful strategy otherwise you could end up losing your kids altogether.”

            “This system is scandalous.  It’s nothing but a sick game of snakes and ladders and nothing whatsoever to do with what’s best for the children,” Sarah snarled.

            “You don’t have to use the courts, you know,” Jimmy O self-righteously proclaimed.

            “Well I don’t have any other options,” Sarah murmured.  “He’s dragging me through them.  Are you suggesting I do a runner; back to the U.S for instance?  Actually that’s not such a bad idea!  Except I’m broke.”

On the morning of the court hearing about the injunction, everything was going wrong and Sarah was running late. Eventually, despite the breakfast bowls being piled up in the sink, clothes strewn about the place and crusts of toast littering the floor, they were all dressed and ready to leave until Jessica decided to posset all over her clean clothes.  No sooner had Sarah cleaned up and changed Jessica’s entire outfit than she and Jason decided to defecate in their nappies to overflowing levels within seconds of each other. Again, a complete change of clothing was needed, this time for both infants.  Sarah ended up virtually running with Jason and Jessica in their double buggy to nursery with David and Anna hot on her heels.  She couldn’t help thinking that today’s proceedings were going to be a waste of time anyway.  An injunction was a legal document prohibiting someone from molesting another and preventing the accused venturing into or near the victim’s place of abode.  Ideally the injunction carries a power of arrest, although there is no guarantee and there is no order to stop anyone making spiteful, injurious referrals to social services or police.  Sarah felt sure that such an important piece of paper wouldn’t stop vermin like villainous, venomous, vengeful Greg potter in his tracks.

            She was miffed at even having to front up in court today.  She had to rise early, get two fractious babies fed, watered and ready for nursery, her older children reasonably groomed and herself respectfully dressed and in the right frame of mind for arguing for the right to be left alone and in peace.  It didn’t make sense somehow; she and her children were the victims of a crazed, intimidating, threatening stalker who was slowly attacking and destroying their sanity and their home and yet they had to appear in front of strangers called magistrates - folk who sit in judgement - asking for permission to live in safety.  It was their God given right, for heavens sakes!  Plus she had to rely on the unpredictable public transport to take her the twenty miles, and she had to foot all the expenses herself to boot!  Anyway the point was he should not be given the opportunity to defend himself in court, he should be in prison serving a long sentence for all he’s done to Cara, herself and all the kids.

            Her mood didn’t improve much once inside the unpleasant, so-called court of justice either.  Statements had been filed and the solicitors spent most of their time wheeling and dealing behind closed doors.  Her lying toad of an ex had filed a statement which chillingly resembled her own.  He’d complained that Sarah had stalked and pestered him relentlessly, that her children had been witnessed behaving mischievously in and around his gardens and in those of his neighbours and that both she and her kids had verbally abused and physically assaulted his daughter Kim. 

            Jimmy O banged on about playing the game shrewdly, accepting that the incidences of harassment were fairly minor and that much of it was about her word against his.  He urged her to accept a lesser court order of an undertaking on the reasoning that if she failed to obtain an injunction, her credibility and therefore her strong position with regard to residence and contact of her babies would be seriously shattered.  Sarah quickly insisted that this was not simply her word against Greg’s but that it was pretty clear that the police believed her and not him because they did not question her whenever he had made allegations about her, which she knew about because of the tip offs by some local PC’s.  Jimmy O abruptly slapped her down stressing that the police do not testify on either side and he made an incidental remark that they were pretty fed up anyhow of her constantly calling them out alleging harassment.  Sarah was momentarily stunned into silence by her solicitor’s offbeat manner and although she felt it odd, she didn’t think to ask how he knew the police’s reactions.  It was pretty obvious though that guys like Greg were protected by the system.  She felt that the police had a duty to take sides and in the doing, stop the rot and protect other unsuspecting potential victims.  She felt sure that if she had been guilty, as Greg was alleging, then they would certainly be taking sides then - his.  Sarah then questioned the trumped up, harmful, objectional referrals to social services that Greg had made and stated that they were obviously slanderous since social services had not taken any action against her.  But all Jimmy Oliver could grunt was:

            “Those are insignificant details.  Like I said, its all part and parcel of the package and you just have to put up with it.”

            She seriously wondered if he was slyly assisting her opponent, as Greg had taunted.  He then dropped another bombshell and insisted that she sign an undertaking too, “Just as a formality.”

            “But I’ve never harassed him.  Not once.  I avoid him at all costs.  I’ve never been near his house and neither have my children.  Greg is a blatant bare-faced liar,” Sarah pleaded.  “And if I sign it I’m admitting that I am just as bad as him.”

            “No, that’s not what it means at all,” Jimmy O reassured her, “You have instigated these proceedings against him; the court recognises that; it’s just a declaration of your word that you won’t, in the future, engage in activities of harassment against him.  It’s a good-will gesture and it puts you in a good light.  Believe me I’m on your side.  We’re playing this the right way.  We’ve got to think of the wider picture and focus on the more important issues of you being granted residence ultimately and Greg getting only minimal contact.”

            Sarah felt cheated and dejected but did not want to believe that her solicitor was doing the dirty on her.  She talked herself into trusting him on his word and to have faith that he spoke and advised through experience and wisdom.  She also felt there was no alternative as she was being legally aided and beggars can’t be choosy.

            They were brought before the justices for the formalities of both lawyers delivering their line of patter.  As his shady solicitor Kelvin Boor stood up to address the magistrate, her self-righteous plank of an ex interrupted to declare that he had never once harassed his ex-fiancee.  Boor repeated his guileful client’s attestation before continuing with his legal jargon.  Sarah sat listening; she shuddered and poker-facedly shook her head.  How she wished Boor’s daughter was being hounded by her ex partner.  He might realise then that his duty as a fairly powerful person obliged him to play a more moralistic role and do his bit to challenge and deter the Gregory Potters of this world.

            Greg looked so smart in his best suit, shirt and tie; so well groomed, clean shaven, respectable-looking and.... so utterly believable.   It was enough to make you weep.

Once outside that awful place of lies and dirty dealing, Sarah’s head was swimming with anger and frustration.  It was all so ludicrous and unfair.  The system was structured to support and protect the perpetrator, short change the victim and fill the pockets of lawyers and judges.  She was convinced they make laws and devise systems to suit themselves and safeguard their interests.  Her head was raging, thinking that those who sit in judgement are happy to habitually dip into the large bottomless pit of public funds for their own purposes.  She wondered if any of them had a conscience and fumed that the deplorable set-up has nothing whatsoever to do with protecting the public, doing what’s right and bringing to justice guilty persons.  She bitterly despised the fact that while men like Greg can rely on the police and the courts to support their immoral wicked ways and criminal dealings, they will continue to offend.  She knew women like her were being betrayed all the time by the ‘system’ and that there was nothing to stop worthless loathsome men like Greg moving on to dupe other innocent females and desecrate their kids.  It was a truly appalling state of affairs.  In her mind there was no place for neutrality concerning the abuse of a woman by a man and in her opinion the police had a moral and a legal obligation to such a woman and to society to take direct action and that included testifying.  They had no business sitting on the fence and if that was their position it was prejudicial sexism and nothing short of corruption.