Ok. So to give you something to think about..
$100 000. Well now, that is 100 000 things to think about. Nope I've changed my mind 200 000 yep $ 200 000. See at one point dad was ordered to pay mum's costs.
So I reckon dad might well have blown $200 000. Maybe more...
Next - She is a wopper, makes my ex seem like a human. Your ex too btw. Lets compare - SHE accused dad of abusing the kids, denied access several times, failed to follow court orders, solid - ROCK solid evidence of wife abusing dad, an established history of the kids refusing to go with dad because of mum's manipulations, she abused the kids by making them fear dad, mum sought orders that would minimise dad's time to a level that would not be meaningful (para 78). They previously had consent orders for dad to have alternate weekends. She accused dad of abusing the kids. Yeah I know, I snuck that one in twice. But it is important.
Now none of that is apparant in your case. Maybe a little bit, but not to the same extent. And not with the same body of evidence that Mr Gorman could produce... " the conversations where the Wife threatened the Husband and the Children were strongly considered by the judge. " You don't have that body of evidence. Did your nutter threaten to kill you OR you and the kids? More than once as appears the case here AND do you have the proof recorded? nope.
Next - Mr Gorman (I'm assuming) did not go into court to prove the ex is a nutter. He went to court because SHE wasn't following consent orders. The end result was mum was proven a nutter. You my friend DO appear to be going to court simply to prove the ex is a nutter. More on this one later.
This is the kicker - " for the first time made serious allegations of violence against the mother" para 34. Dad kept quiet on the allegations until mum started witholding the kids... He tried to avoid using allegations of dv against the mum because he knew it would make things worse for him... But when he started to have concerns that the kids were being manipulated / abused he used his evidence that he too was abused to substantiate the fact that mum is a nutter.
5 yrs... 5 yrs from separation to the time the final hearing. 5 farking years. 5 years those kids were subject to HER abuse. Now go make a cuppa and sit down and think this next one through... Nutters get worse when pressure is applied. Mate I don't want you to go through what Mr Gorman went through. You're best bet to minimise your kids copping the same abuse as Mr Gorman's kids is to cool things down. Back a nutter into a corner and they explode. Mate go for 5 a fortnight, 6 in 2 yrs. She is offering that anyways. You pull the borderline trigger and you can bet she'll change her orders to minimal time and start a long petracted battle that will go on for years. She is very very likely to get it at least in the interim, so all of a sudden you've got a year or two where you're only getting 3 or 4 nights a fortnight... Is it worth the gamble? I think not. Get your 5-6 nights and if mum fcuks up you take her back to court.
She accused dad of abusing the kids. Oops, mentioned that one once or twice. It is fcuking important and a huge difference between your case and MR Gorman.
How is that cuppa tea going... You're gonna need a refill. You're going to court to prove the ex is a nutter (I told you I'd get back to it)
You risk coming across as the vexatious ex. The cases I hate reading the most are the ones where mum is a nutter. Dad gets infected with nuttiness and runs his case badly as a result. Mum accusses dad. Dad gets mad (rightly so) and starts making accusations back. So hypothetical to prove the point. Every drop off mum and dad argue infront of kids. Mum thows soiled underwear at dad (u'm did i mention thta happened to me) Mum stops access. Dad picks up kid from school, keeps the kid home from school for make up time for the weekend dad missed. Mum and dad argue some more via text messages. Both say dumb stuff. Mum accuses dad of DV. Gets an avo. Dad writes some dumb stuff on facebook. They're in and out of family court constantly.blah blah blah. Magistrate has decided that the toxic relationship, that both parents seem intent on using the courts as a tool for their personal vendetta against each other and the kid's childhood is being destroyed as a result. In some cases I've read, the truly heart breaking ones are when the magistrate concedes that mum has created in an image in the mind of the child that dad is the devil. The kid is that scared that it would be cruel to make the kid spend time with dad... The end result? an order saying mum has sole parental responsibility and dad is given no access. YOU are risking that end result...
You risk coming across as the vexatious ex (cpt 2). 3 psychologists. 3. three. So me and the ex had 3 goes at marriage counselling. The second one was recommended by my friend, a school counsellor who was the first to tell me about this thing called borderline personality and he said his mate would be a good counselor to pick up on that one... NOTHING. ZIP. zero. I'm the problem. ME ME ME. Alcohol was the dominant theme with one counsellor. Of course i was drinking too much, I was living in an abusive relationship, I was self medicating... The next counsellor decided I was hypersensitive to criticism and I just needed to grow a set... NO, I was the victim of emotional and sometimes physical abuse. I was traumatized and got no help from a professional who should have been able to see it. The third counsellor was a doozy, my ex and her having a group hug whilst they cried on each other's shoulders. Do you think I was gonna get a fair hearing with the sisterhood? nope. I was the problem because I had failed to understand the 'new dynamic' of marriage and I was living in an old mysoginistic paradigm. WTF? You mentioned the judge said the NUTTER appeared normal 'Supranormal'. You're risking your nutter pulling it off. You don't have the recordings like Mr Gorman had. Just like the three counsellors were unable to see that my ex is a nutter, you could be in the same situation. But you're gambling your kids on it.
" The Judge thus determined it was either sole custody for the father or sole custody for the mother." You're risking making this a toss of the coin. Heads or tails. No other possibility. High stakes. So you lose. Kids grow up in a world where mum is the sole parental influence on what sort of adults they become. You are relegated to the ancient history book of the kids lives. The winners write the history books.... But with 4-5 a fortnight you're guaranteed to be there and have close to 50/50 care
I'd like to know what happened in Mr Gorman's case. Where are they now.... See I reckon OR I fear, that Mrs Gorman did the counselling, sung like a little song bird, said the right things manipulated the whole fcuking thing and was back in the kids lives AND started working so that the seeds she'd already planted in the minds of those poor kids were ready and before you know it the kids were back refusing to go to dad and by the age of 12-14 dad is back in court with a few uncomfortable realities ahead of him.