Branch rejects judge’s charges

Press, 26 November 1979, Page 6

Branch rejects judge’s charges

The Wellington branch of the Families Need Fathers Society has rejected allegations made on Friday by Mr Justice Casey before his resignation as chairman of an International Year of the Child committee.

Mr Justice Casey resigned as chairman of the National Theme Committee on Law and the Needs of the Child in protest against allegations by the society’s Wellington branch, which “questioned the integrity and honesty of magistrates and judges.”

He criticised the branch for alleging “judicial misuse of evidence” in custody disputes. The chairman of the Wellington branch of Families Need Fathers (Mr P. J. Conroy) said that a working party from the branch had investigated four custody decisions which, he alleged, were made “against the weight of evidence.” “The evidence of experts has been misused, misinterpreted, or disregarded altogether, and children may have been disadvantaged,” said Mr Conroy. The Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) had been asked to instigate a commission of inquiry, but had refused, suggesting that the remedy for a person aggrieved by a

decision of the court was to appeal. “This advice is usually unrealistic and impractical,” said Mr Conroy. The society had approached the Governor-Gen-eral (Sir Keith Holyoake) and asked him to use his influence in the Executive Council. Sir Keith had replied that he had made inquiries and that the law was about to be changed, said Mr Conroy.

“The fact that the law is to be altered is acknowledgement that custody laws are in need of change. At no time has Mr McLay made it known that the factual basis of our criticisms and investigations had ever been questioned or had been in dispute,” said Mr Conroy.