{"id":563960,"date":"2026-08-09T17:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563960\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T17:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:46:21","slug":"family-court-orders-no-contact-after-fathers-uninhibited-dysregulated-and-abusive-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563960\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Court orders no contact after father\u2019s \u2018uninhibited, dysregulated\u2019 and abusive behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The decision was released in a Family Court<\/a> ruling by Judge Stephen Coyle, bringing eight years of litigation to an end. The family has automatic name suppression. <\/p>\n

The court heard the relationship ended after a family barbecue when the man argued with others before leaving with his partner and children in the car.<\/p>\n

During the journey home, he drove at 120km\/h and the mother told the court she feared for their lives.<\/p>\n

The incident was recorded and played to the judge, who noted it was \u201ca distressing incident to watch\u201d.<\/p>\n

The man was heard saying, \u201cYou know what I\u2019m f***ing capable of, I\u2019ll go for your dad\u2019s f***ing throat\u201d,** and telling everyone to shut up when asked to stop.<\/p>\n

When they got home, the woman said he did a doughnut in the driveway and drove at speed towards the carport before abruptly stopping.<\/p>\n

He took the woman\u2019s phone and, as she was crying, she said he licked her tears and said: \u201cHmmm, I love the way they taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman later applied for a temporary protection order<\/a> (TPO) and an interim parenting order with supervised access, which were granted. But the TPO was not made final and was discharged a year later.<\/p>\n

Months later, unsupervised access was granted to the father but, in 2022, he alleged his children were being sexually abused and did not return them.<\/p>\n

The woman applied for a warrant to enforce the parenting order and the children were returned to her care.<\/p>\n

Oranga Tamariki (OT) investigated the allegations and found no evidence of abuse, but the father continued raising his concerns with authorities.<\/p>\n

In December 2022, the father took one of the children to an emergency department alleging she had suffered a head injury, but staff became concerned about his behaviour.<\/p>\n

He reportedly yelled at a nurse, telling her to \u201cf*** off\u201d, and a report of concern was made to OT.<\/p>\n

OT visited the father days later and reported he was agitated and unable to hold a direct line of conversation. The social workers became frightened by his presentation and left.<\/p>\n

He again refused to return the children and the mother had to file another application for a warrant, which was granted.<\/p>\n

The same day, the man had taken the girls to a police station to report the allegations of abuse.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe man was trespassed from Oranga Tamariki after staff were left frightened at his behaviour. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to him, the warrant had been issued for the children to be uplifted, and police executed it at the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a straightforward process. [The father] was understandably upset that the warrant had been granted given his belief that the girls were at risk in their mother\u2019s care,\u201d Judge Coyle said in the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to be arrested by the police and removed so that [the children] could be returned to their mother\u2019s care.\u201d <\/p>\n

After being released, he turned up to an OT office and when staff became afraid, he was removed and a trespass order was issued.<\/p>\n

He then called 111 and claimed his children had been taken.<\/p>\n

School concerns<\/p>\n

According to the decision, the children\u2019s school gave evidence to the Family Court that it became concerned about the father\u2019s behaviour, particularly when he turned up to a \u201cfunky fun day\u201d event and took photos of children and staff.<\/p>\n

He then posted the photos online with derogatory comments and the school implemented a lockdown policy if he was sighted near the school.<\/p>\n

The mother was granted another interim protection order, which became final when the man did not file any opposition.<\/p>\n

She was also granted a further variation of the parenting order, reinstating supervised access for the father. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe father routinely made unfounded allegations his children were being abused. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n

But supervised contact could not proceed because the provider terminated its contract due to his behaviour.<\/p>\n

He then filed an application seeking day-to-day care and the discharge of the parenting order, which proceeded to a hearing.<\/p>\n

Several delays occurred before the eight-day hearing, including the father failing to file evidence and two assigned senior lawyers withdrawing from acting for him.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Michael Roots was eventually assigned and Judge Coyle commended his role.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy observation was that Mr Roots showed enormous forbearance in the face of, at times, rude and belligerent attacks by [the father].\u201d<\/p>\n

Court behaviour<\/p>\n

The judge found that during the cross-examination of the mother, the father used the process to psychologically abuse her.<\/p>\n

For days, the man routinely interrupted the judge and would loudly interrupt his lawyer with questions he wanted asked of the woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the last session of the first day of the hearing I had to ask [the father] to leave the courtroom as his behaviour in court had become untenable,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did so, but then stood at the door peering into the courtroom through the window and was staring directly at [the mother] and in doing so he was breaching the protection order.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she saw him [as the screen used did not shield her from that view] she instantly gasped, scooted in her chair as far away as she could in the witness box, curled up into the foetal position on the chair, and stated, \u2018He\u2019s staring, I mean he\u2019s just right there in the doorway\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge described her distress as instinctive and visceral.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe woman became so distressed giving evidence, she curled into a foetal position. Photo \/ Supplied \/ 123RF<\/p>\n

At the hearing, the father claimed he was the victim of family violence at the hands of the woman, but the judge ruled he had no evidence to support the allegations.<\/p>\n

Judge Coyle said that when questioned about the barbecue incident, the man claimed his ex-partner was drunk and that he had been acting in self-defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis evidence was chilling in his attempt to blame her. The video speaks for itself,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis language towards her was abusive and dismissive, he essentially tried to shut her down so that she had no voice or agency in her distress. It was behaviour designed to belittle, antagonise, frighten, demean and diminish [the mother].<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that [the mother] was drunk as asserted by [the father]. He is simply making that up in an attempt to victim-blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intimidating professionals<\/p>\n

The court also heard evidence that Family Court staff had been reduced to tears by the man\u2019s behaviour, particularly a senior Family Court practitioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are patterns in relation to [the father\u2019s] interactions with virtually every person or agency he has come into contact with which have caused people to be concerned for their physical and\/or psychological safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy assessment therefore is that there is an extremely high risk of future family harm to [the mother] in particular if the protection order was discharged.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge directed the protection order be made final and made a rare order granting sole care of the children to the mother with no contact for the father.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis behaviour in court, at a time in which [the father] should have been on his best behaviour while the gaze of the court was on him, was uninhibited, dysregulated, and at times, frankly abusive and intimidating,\u201d Judge Coyle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to protect [the children], there could only be supervised contact with [the father]. But there is no agency willing to supervise [his] contact with these girls. <\/p>\n

\u201cI therefore have determined that an order should be made that [the children] are to have no contact with [the father].\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge also ruled the man\u2019s behaviour amounted to litigant abuse and ordered that he not file any new proceedings against his ex-partner for three years.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision was released in a Family Court ruling by Judge Stephen Coyle, bringing eight years of litigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138431,74,95,44183,16579,1349,277483,2109,9064,111,43,139,7805,69,6848,277482],"class_list":["post-563960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abusive","tag-after","tag-and","tag-behaviour","tag-contact","tag-court","tag-dysregulated","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-orders","tag-uninhibited"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}