rights as a father ?

hiya , just wondered if anyone at all can help my fiance ,

he has a very difficult ex partner , they both have a daughter together age 3 years just gone , and his name is also not on her birth cert , he is now going to court to fight for some custody , there was court date the other day but he had to perspone it for the mother as she had to take baby to hospital , my partner agreed and canceled for her , but said that he wanted a new date asap as the mother is intending on moving to another place of UK , very far !! he now has been given another date for court luckily it next week ! his ex is giving every excuse she can think of not to go , for eg ;- her new partner ( her first cousin ) his father died sad as it i know its hard but surely she should not perspone her own daughters court date again for this ? anyway my fiance is a little worried about going to court as he knows she will try anything to stop him seeing her , he has never ever been violent hes would not even hurt a fly lol , he has always wanted to be there for his daughter right up from birth , although in the beginning he was a little unsure how to cope with baby but i know that he gave his 100% in everything i mean we are all not brilliant , and have to learn sometime , right as time passed she then stopped contact altogether at 3 months old because he did not have suitable accommodation , apparently ? then her mother was causing allot of trouble for him , she asked him to stay away and then she will sort something out , me and him stayed away for months hard that it was he done it not to cause any trouble , finaly on her first birthday the mother aloud visitation , but only at her flat that was hard for me but even harder for my partner as he did not want to be in her flat , that's why i was there for support but yet again she did not want me there just him lol , this went on for 9 months then for no reason at all stopped again , then after doing a DNA test she told my partner ( OVER THE PHONE )that he was not the biological father !! devastated he was , he asked could he go and say good bye to her , he went up she made him say goodbye to baby , and he gave her birthday gifts and cake ect , and she also showed him the DNA statement stating that he was not father , he left and came to the car were i was waiting and cried , very upset by this , about 10 min later he had a phone call off a very suspicious ex , saying she also does not believe the tests are right ,and that they should do another one , we did record this statement on another phone , about a month later could not get hold of his ex to do another DNA test so he phoned the center that she said it was done and the name on the letter she showed him , and asked if he could do another one just in-case it was wrong , they assured him hat i t would not be wrong he then asked could they tell him what blood group she was , they went to check and to his surprise they said she is not on our records , he asked is the test paper or test still there they sad that his ex had asked for one to be sent out but we never received it back from her , in other words she did not do the dna test and faked the DNA latter , sick that this is , my partner went straight up her house and wanted to know an explanation , but there was no way he was getting one , she would not answer the door and turned her phone off , after months and months of trying to phone , letters , meditation letters that she had ignored and wrote a letter to his solicitor stating " i thought your client would have given up by now , cant he see hes wasting the woodland with the letters your sending me , " now up to this day we have not bothered her in any way left her alone , only through solicitors , also my partner has posted Christmas cards , birthday cards through her window for the baby , but other than that nothing at all , because of the arguments she will cause , now he is worried she will make him go through supervised visits , and only do things on her terms ? we just want to know what rights he has as his name is not on cert ? can he apply for half custody ? can he take her on weekends , because she is moving so far away ?

please if anyone can help we would really be great-full

Sarah and partner xxx:unsure:

Contact is the right of the child, not the parent. Has your partner tried to enlist professional help such as mediation? If not that should be the first port of call. Good contact for children relies on parents learning to work together and going to court tends to make that impossible.

The next line would be for him to apply to court for parental responsibility and contact. Shared residence isn't indicated unless the reality is the child lives in two homes. If your partner hasn't seen the child for a while supervised contact is likely, but usually it is only a temporary arrangement. Once the child is accustomed and he has shown commitment to contact it would become unsupervised gradually building up from a few hours to a full day, then overnights and eventually weekends and holidays.

thank you so much for getting back intouch with me so quick

he has arranged medeation with her via solicitor but all have been ignored all 3 attemps ?

he wants to know when he goes to court next week =

can he aply for his name on birth cert ?

how many hours is supervised visists for , how how long will it last for intill normal

can he take her away on hols

if anfet a few months he is granted normal visitation rights can i as a partner of 3 years com on day trips and be a part of his daughters life , what rights as a partner do i have /

if when he goes to court next week and a decishion can not be ,made what will then happen ?

if a decision is made and she sighns contact papaers but then weeks to follow she does not bring baby to visitation what will happent then if she does not do what the court has told her ?

has she got the right to move to england , as we are in wales , and not tell him were she is going , adress ext ?

thank you so much for your help it means alot xxx

Hi Sarah2009

You ask a lot of questions, and I appreciate your anxiety however best to take one step at a time and to manage your expectations realistically.

Your Partner can apply for Parental Responsibility which he does not presently have which he will in all likelihood be granted.

As he has not seen his daughter for a long while his contact will, for good reason, be supervised to begin with.

This would be the case with or without a Court Order so nothing is lost here.

This contact is best if it is for short periods of time and often. There is no "one size fits all" and so depending on how his daughter handles the experience he may wish to have small periods within this contact unsupervised which would be both for his and his daughter's benefit. Your partner is best advised to try and build his relationship with Mum at the same time to engender her trust.

Bearing this in mind can you see how long the process can take before he has unsupervised access let alone building up to an overnight stay? Overnight stays are a whole 'nother issue!!

Your other questions are, in my opinion, premature. Continue to support your Partner and keeping yourself busy with your own friends and/or schedule whilst he visits his daughter will relieve your stress levels while he is at his Ex's house! (I have been there!!!!!!)

So that's probably where you will start. It is a long, long road especially when all of this appears to be against Mum's wishes so patience is key when you choose to remain in a relationship with someone in your Partner's predicament.

I wish you all well.