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Father' less Christmas

MORE than one million children in Britain will not see their father this Christmas.

As divorce rates soar, thousands of dads are realising they have NO right in English law to see their kids after a family breakdown.

Even when courts grant orders for so-called "non-resident" parents — usually dads — to have "access" to their children, they are often defied by the "resident" parents.

Today The Sun calls for dads to be given equal rights to be with their children after a family break-up.

We are backing father-of-four Sir Bob Geldof who has championed the cause of estranged dads.

He brands this country's Family Law system as "grotesque" for its failure to maintain links between children and their parents.

Sir Bob said: "Family Law as it currently stands does not work. It is rarely of benefit to the child and promotes injustice, conflict and unhappiness on a massive scale."

Nearly three million of Britain's 11.7 million kids now live in single-parent families.

Though mother and father are equally responsible for the children, love them equally and are loved equally, courts give 93 per cent of children from broken families to their mothers to be looked after.

Up to four in ten dads lose contact with their children within two years of separation from their partners, according to recent figures.

Faced with the hostility of an ex-partner, the cost and bureaucracy of the courts and the inability of English law to protect children's relationships with both parents, they are left with little choice.

The Sun has been swamped by pleas from hundreds of desperate dads struggling against bitter ex-partners and the shambolic Family Law system to see their little ones.

Children who grow up without their fathers have been shown to be much more likely to suffer abuse, do badly at school, get into trouble and end up in broken relationships, starting the cycle all over again.

As well as the emotional toll of break-ups on kids and their fathers, the direct costs to the nation in benefits, housing, lost earnings and court and legal fees have been estimated at £15billion a year.

Shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve has called for a change in the law so that dads have the RIGHT to contact with their children.

There is no presumption in English law that a father has a right to see his kids and many dads have to go to court to win a contact order to see them.

Even then, if a mother defies the order the court can fine or jail her but it rarely happens because it is not in the best interests of the children.

Another option is to switch custody of the children to the father, but courts rarely do that because many judges still believe that mothers make better carers.

A consultation paper proposing a "ladder" of sanctions against defiant parents is being considered by Children's Minister Margaret Hodge.

But opponents say that will merely lengthen already tortuous court proceedings.

In Scotland, a father's rights to have his child live with him after divorce, or to have regular contact, is included in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (section 2).

In England, the Children Act 1989 was supposed to press home the idea that children are best looked after by both parents, but it has failed to deliver.

Thousands more contact orders have to be made by courts every year because parents granted "resident" status - usually the mother - will not let the non-resident parent see their children.

Matt O'Connor, founder of pressure group Fathers 4 Justice, said: "Mum can bring home Peter Sutcliffe or Ian Brady and install him as the kids' new daddy with no questions asked, while the real dad has to spend thousands of pounds going to court to prove it is in his children's best interests for him to be their dad.

"Even then, Mum can still ignore the courts because, at the end of the day, Dad doesn't have the right to be a dad."

The Sun calls for dads to be given equal rights!

NOW tell us your stories. E-mail featurea@the-sun.co.uk or fax 020 7782 4063

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