Parental Alienation: A Loving Father’s Lost Years

Allan Freeman-Jones | English, 2017

Parental alienation is the scourge of modern day co-parenting. Aided by indifferent and often out-dated family court systems, a legion of children and co-parents are living alienated lives. This is a story of our time. In the space of four years Allan went from bachelor to alienated father. When it looked like Allan may have gained increased access to his son Timothy, Margaret played her trump card: the father was accused of sexually abusing his son. Upon the order of the Family Court, contact between father and son ceased. When re-established, contact was supervised. Investigations by the Department For Child Protection and the police concluded the allegations were unfounded. Allan was saddened his son had now become a stranger to him. For the sake of his son’s mental and emotional wellbeing, seeing it as his only realistic course of action, Allan exited his son’s life. Nearly eight years have passed without any contact between Allan and Timothy. After a few false starts, Margaret’s alienation plan ultimately proved successful.