That evil woman
The Family Court has put online some of its previous decisions regarding Jones v Skelton with regards to Jayden Headley.
I read them last night and the more I read the angrier I got. You can only be appalled at the behaviour of Kay Skelton. What she, and her parents, have done to Jayden and to Chris Jones is appalling. She has lied to the court, faked DNA results, broken dozens of court orders, and done everything possible to drive the father out of his son’s life. This included suggesting he was not the father and giving the court fake DNA results to prove it.
Skelton should be in jail for a long long time, and that is regardless of any finding over the kidnapping. She is an appalling, even evil, person. Her parents seem equally appalling. Don’t take my word for it – go read the dozens of pages of court judgements. Here’s a summary:
* Court ordered interim supervised weekly (later fortnightly) access for Jones in June 2001
* No visits occurred until Nov 2001 and then only seven visits over six months until April 2002
* By 2001, Skelton has gone through *five* Solictors. By 2006 it is hard to keep count but I estimate she has gone through 20 lawyers – changing them everytime to delay court appearances
* From April 2002 ignored all court orders and started to raise (for the first time) paternity doubts
* In Dec 2002 further court orders were made for access for Chris Jones. Note he never sought primary custody at this stage. All he wanted was some time with his son
* After this order, Skelton moved to Australia without telling the court or the father. She returned eight months later in Aug 2003 when facing Hague Convention proceedings
* Further access visits are sporadic as mother often claims Jayden is sick or unwilling to see the father. Jayden now says he doesn’t want to see his father, but it becomes clear he has been coached by his grandparents to say this “Poppa says I don’t have to see him anymore and Mum says he (Jones) is a bad, bad man”
* Then Jayden started claiming that Chris Jones was not his father. Again obviously fed to him by his mother and her parents, who were trying to remove Jones from his son’s life.
* In an interview with the Judge, the grandfather Dick Headley was found to be not a credible witness
* The Court ruled in Sep 2005 that Jones was to be given access twice a week and also that the Court would become Jayden’s guardian. His mother retained primary custody.
* The next court ruling was June 2006. They received a report from the mother from DNA Solutions Ltd stating that Brett Skelton was 99.9% the father of Jayden.
* Skelton refused to consent to a further test or to authorise DNA Solutions to release the samples it used. The court ordered a further test and consented on behalf of Jayden for this test.
* Skelton refused to obey the court order and make Jayden available for a mouth swab. Skelton also then alleged physical abuse by Jones. These were not found credible. Finally they took a sample from Jayden at school. These confirmed Jones was the father and the previous results were either fake (from different people to those named) or forged.
* The court found “there are no limits to the steps she is willing to take to cut Chris Jones out of Jayden’s life as if the former had never existed.”
* The court then ordered Jones to have primary custody. Soon after Jayden was kidnapped.
The Court has done a big favour in making this public. Several things strike me from reading the rulings:
1) This was never a case of a father and mother both wanting primary custody. Jones never sought this at first. All he wanted was to spend time with his boy.
2) The Court in this case has made the right calls.
3) I am amazed that Skelton has suffered no penalty for her constant lies, perjury, fake documents, breaking of court orders, manipulation of the court, going through 20 solicitors as delaying tactics etc. When there are no consequences to bad behaviour, it continues.
4) I can’t see how Skelton can ever be allowed unsupervised access to Jayden again. Her entire history is that she and her poisonous parents will use any access to warp Jayden and/or steal him away.
5) She has only herself to blame. The father, Chris Jones, from all accounts has bent over backwards to be reasonable, has calmly accepted years of delays and excuses, and if she had just allowed him to spend some time with his son, then this need never have happened.
6) The Court, in my opinion, has very clearly seen through Skelton’s ruses and made the correct rulings. But this was relatively easy as she was so over the top with her breach of court orders, excuses, changing of lawyers etc. My concern is that more subtle and more clever tactics may have succeeded.
7) I wonder how many parents have gone through similar.
The NZ Herald have a story, as does Stuff. But I really do urge people to read the five court rulings in full. By 5 pm today the Court will have published its own chronological summary which will be useful.