Adrian Bressington works as head of Family Law at a firm of Devizes solicitors called Awdry, Bailey & Douglas.An extract from Awdry, Bailey & Douglas Family Law section of their website states the following:
" Our priority is to limit damage to both parties and any children through conciliation and negotiation. We are committed to being the best and above all, to getting the best results for our clients. We will seek a conciliatory approach when necessary, particularly when dealing with problems involving children."It is a shame that Bressington does not actually follow the above quotation.
Since my marriage broke down, he has blatantly lied to the judge in court, has dismissed out of hand an attempt at mediation, has repeatedly ignored attempts from my solicitor at communication, has supported and therefore encouraged illegal acts by my wife and has intimated that his friendship with a particular judge would be favourable for him. He has done everything in his power to delay proceedings and therefore line his own pocket at the expense of my wife, myself and therefore my children and then has the audacity to try and make out that has my children's best interests at heart.
What a joke! If he knew anything about children at all and the damage that messy break ups like ours cause to them by people like him, then that would make him guilty of deliberate abuse. The fact is he neither knows or cares.
I will now give details of his behaviour.
The first I knew that my wife was trying to kick me out of my house was Sunday 7th May 2006, when just after returning home from a trip away I was served with a summons on my doorstep to appear in Swindon County Court 2 days later. I cannot believe that it was a coincidence that this was to be on my birthday!! Along with a document cooked up by Bressington and my wife making all sorts of allegations against me over the previous 13 years was a Non-molestation order. The document contained blatant lies and half truths that frankly staggered me. I remember asking my wife how long she had known about this as it had left me no time to find a solicitor of my own.
Right at that point, I already had worked out that Bressington was working on taking my wife for a ride and extorting every penny he could from her. I suggested to my wife that without a solicitor all that would happen in 2 days time was that the hearing would be adjourned and she would have to pay for his services again. A man of his experience MUST have known that.
I asked her how long she had known about it, but she refused to answer me and instead said she was phoning Bressington and wanted me to talk to him. I told him that the contents of the document he had prepared was full of lies and half truths and he responded with "If only some of it is lies - then some of it must be true". He then went on to advise me that if I was him "I would find somewhere else to live in the next 2 days".
I seem to recall asking him what planet he came from and at that point my wife decided that I had talked to him long enough and tried to wrestle the phone out of my hand. In the process her arm split my lip open against my teeth causing it to bleed. I told Bressington this and he immediately said " That's it - I'm phoning the police". The line went dead.
30 minutes later I got a phone call from Gloucester police. They sounded confused and asked me "Is that Mr Line?". I confirmed it was me and they then proceeded to explain their confusion. They said they had received a 999 call to my address, but said that they were from Gloucester and I was in Wiltshire. I guessed that this was because Bressington had called his local police, something that was confirmed to me a short while later. I told them what had happened and that everything was peaceful now - but I would be glad if they sent a local policeman round to confirm.
They did and a WPC eventually turned up and chatted to us both. She made it clear to my wife that her behaviour regarding her assault on me was completely unreasonable and explained to me that the Non-molestation order I had received was bad news and that my wife could phone them for any reason at all, and regardless of whether I had actually done anything, I would be arrested. She advised me not to say another word to her.
2 days later in court, exactly as I had predicted, the judge adjourned the case until 18th May 2006. Bressington immediately protested and told the judge, "Within 20 minutes of Mr Line being served with the summons and non-molestation order, he had broken it and the police had to be called", (he didn't mention that it was HE who had called them) he then went on to say that "WPC............ from Devizes attended and on arrival at the house heard raised voices". This was a blatant lie. He then completed his story with a few more inaccuracies before I got a chance to tell the judge my version of events.
While I was doing so Bressington was muttering under his breath and passed me a piece of paper saying "It isn't lies and I've got proof". The proof was pulled away from me before I got a chance to read it, but I was so angry that he would actually tell lies to the judge to make me look bad when it was my wife who had assaulted me, that I decided to get proof of my own.
As soon as I left court that day, I telephoned Devizes police and eventually got to speak to the WPC concerned. I told her what had happened and asked her why she had written what Bressington said in her report. She said she didn't have the report to hand, but said "I wouldn't have written that because it didn't happen". She further advised me that I could apply to get a copy of the report from that night along with records of all phone calls and in fact everything that the police held on me. I did this. It took about 40 days and cost me money, but the documents proved that Bressington lied.
This was just the beginning.
On 18th May I finally met my solicitor, he advised me not to fight my wifes move to get me out the house regardless of the lies. I remember saying "This isn't justice, this is b*****ks". He replied "Welcome to the Family Courts system - it isn't about Justice, it's about doing deals". He went on to explain, that I was welcome to fight my wifes lies in court, but all it would do was cost me at least another £2000 and the result would be the same. I asked him to explain. He told me that there was no evidence to support my wife or me and that it was simply her word against mine. If a hearing was set - we would both be sworn in and then there would be a tit-for-tat war of words and at the end of it the judge would come to the same conclusion, which was that we couldn't live together anymore. He went on to say that the judge would then put one of us out of the house and that there were no prizes for guessing who it was going to be.
I felt betrayed, stunned, angry and let down. Everything I had ever worked for to provide for my family, taken away at the stroke of a pen.
My solicitor had a hard time getting all this through to me in the short time we had, but one thing stood out crystal clear - the fact that no one had mentioned my children. It suddenly dawned on me that no one gave a rip about them. I brought the subject up and my solicitor said he would probably get them to agree to me seeing them 'every other weekend'. I couldn't believe it and said it wasn't enough.
He said that he would suggest that my wife and I went to mediation to sort out things like the children and the finances. He was gone for no more than 2 minutes , but came back and said that they had refused mediation out of hand.
I couldn't understand why at that time, but it is clear to me that Bressington has nothing to lose and everything to gain, by issues such as the children and finances NOT being sorted out without his involvement.
The judge himself warned us to start talking otherwise our solicitors would take every penny we had. It was good advice, but not one my wife heeded.
I asked her about all the lies in her document and she replied "You know what solicitors are like". Actually I didn't - but I know what Bressington is like.
Ever since that day Bressington has deliberately made things as difficult and confrontational as possible.
He has repeatedly completely ignored communications from my solicitor, including an offer way back in Sept 06 for me to start divorce proceedings.
He repeatedly did not reply to letters regarding contact with the children and in the run up to Xmas 2006 displayed his most disgraceful behaviour yet.
I made repeated attempts via my solicitor to try and work out a fair resolution for the Xmas break regarding contact. I don't think I could have been more flexible. All I wanted was to spend either Xmas Day or Xmas Eve with my girls and have them for half of the remaining days. Apart from having them on 1 of those 2 days I had said that I did not mind which of the other days I had them as long as I had some notice. Sounds reasonable?
After getting no replies, on the 19th Dec in desperation I tried to speak to my wife about it on the phone. It was clear fairly early on that she simply was not happy with that arrangement and wanted them for both days herself. I tried to reason with her, I said we can swap next year etc etc. Then all of a sudden, she started shouting down the phone at me. Things like "You're threatening to keep them and not bring them back aren't you??" and variations of this theme. At the other end of the phone I was protesting and telling her that I had said no such thing. She just persisted, shouting the same stuff down the phone, as though I wasn't there. I eventually realised that all her shouting was purely for the girls benefit and so I put the phone down and spoke to my solicitor.
Bearing in mind there was now only a few days before the Xmas break, my solicitor urgently tried to contact Bressington. They tried phone, letter, left ansaphone messages, left messages with his secretary and were promised calls back etc etc. Nothing! Then 4 minutes before Bressington went out of the office door to spend time with his family for Xmas he sent a fax as a reply. Although it was obvious that we could not respond, he was even kind enough to make that clear.
The letter basically said that based on the threat I had made to "Keep the children until New Years Eve" his client 'would allow' me to see the children for 3 days. As there was no way to respond to this (and Bressington knew it), my solicitor advised me that there was nothing I could do.
My girls and I had made plans for Xmas on a previous visit and they were just ignored. When I asked the girls, why they had allowed this to happen - they just said "because of what you said on the phone".
This was the most heartbreaking 2 weeks of my life and I will never forget it.
Every holiday after that some sort of nonsense went on and I wouldn't get what was agreed, but every other weekend went OK.
Then last summer it was like Xmas 2006 revisited. Despite attempts to agree when to have the girls for the summer holiday, I got nowhere. Again I was totally flexible, just wanted to see them for half the holidays and left it up to my wife to decide when, as long as I had some notice.
3 days before the holidays i got a letter from Bressington saying I could have the girls for 14 days starting the 1st day of the holidays. With only 3 days notice this was not possible, so we responded, saying that and suggesting 17 days (not even half holidays) starting a week later. We got no response as usual. I picked the girls up on the day i had suggested but as I had not had any confirmation of the arrangements, I asked the girls when they were going back. They replied with, "Mum's solicitor has written to you", and wouldn't say anymore. My solicitor (in fact a stand in because she was now on holiday) continued to chase Bressington for an answer and eventually spoke to him on the phone. He said that my wife would "not agree to 17 days and that I could have them for 14". Obviously there was nothing I could do about this and so once again just had to accept that they were flexing their muscles.
Then on 8th August I was explaining to the girls where we were going the next day ( a trip to London) when one of them said "we're not going to be back too late are we?". I said, "probably quite late", and asked "Why?"
I was then told that they were going back to their mum the next evening. I was distraught, upset, angry and tearful. Mainly because I am father to the loveliest, loving, well behaved children that anyone could wish for. To my knowledge they had never lied to either me or their mother, but they had been told to lie to me by their mother. Not only that, but my wife was taking them out of the country for 4 weeks and had not (as she was required to do) let me know. This resulted in all of us becoming very upset and tearful and i suggested that as the trip to London was ruined they might as well go back to their mother that night. She picked them up several minutes later.
I did not even know when the girls got back. No one was answering my texts or phone calls. I had to find out they were back by ringing the school. I eventually got to speak to one of my girls and arranged a time to pick them up the following weekend. 2 minutes later my wife phoned me and simply said "You're not seeing them", a phrase she just kept repeating.
I rang my solicitor and was told the only thing I could do was apply for a Contact Order. I did. It took 4 months and in the meantime I had no contact with my girls whatsoever. I ask people to try and imagine what that feels like.
At the initial Directions Hearing at Trowbridge Court, I was waiting in the waiting room for my solicitor to arrive. Bressington arrived early too, looked around, saw me and then went up to the Clerk and said "Who is sitting today?", the clerk told him that is was District Judge Goddard. Bressington enthusiastically responded, "Oh excellent, we know each other very well". I can only assume that this nonsensical bit of theatre was purely for my benefit and to make me think that in some way his relationship with the judge would influence things in his favour.
However, the errors in procedures leading up to the hearing and the subsequent blind eye turned to them at the hearing itself give me good reason to have no confidence in the Family Courts at all.
I cannot write about the hearing in detail at this time, but basically CAFCASS interviewed the girls and one of them said she didn't want to see me. So that was it. The judge ruled that he would not make an order for contact. He allowed me to write to them once a month and send small gifts at appropriate times and told my wife to encourage them to respond to my letters. She told the judge "Oh yes of course I will" and since that day I have not had a single letter in reply.
After the trauma of that day, you would have thought the judgment would have been enough, but not so for Bressington. He believes in kicking a man when he is down and said to me "Mr Line, you brought all of this on yourself. If you had been happy with every other weekend, we wouldn't be here now".
Not only will I not forget Bressington's disgusting low behaviour, but I will not rest until he is exposed for the man that he is. He likes to portray himself as the successful, public schooled gentleman, who has played cricket for Gloucestershire, but in truth he is a scoundrel who preys on the vulnerable and takes them for every penny he can, not caring about the damage that he causes to the unseen children in the meantime. Solicitors like him are a disgrace to society.
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