21/07/2025
There is a discrepancy between what parents should do to protect their children and what they must do to remain in their children’s lives.
A former MP who was r***d by her ex-husband was advised that the family court would “take a dim view” if she tried to prevent him seeing their child.
Kate Kniveton said that at the outset of proceedings her first solicitor recommended she allow contact between her toddler and former Conservative minister Andrew Griffiths, who she had left after suffering a decade of violence and abuse.
The family court went on to make 14 findings against Griffiths including attempted strangulation and r**e. The case was made public in 2021 after two journalists won a landmark ruling to publish the details, and he was eventually barred from having direct contact with his child. Griffiths denies the allegations.
Speaking on a documentary airing on Sunday night, Kniveton said she was advised by her initial solicitor to maintain contact between her child and Griffiths. She was told this was to avoid being accused of “parental alienation” – the idea that a child has been turned against one parent by the other.
She later told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ): “I took the advice because it was all new to me and I was scared of how a judge would view it if I stopped him seeing [their child]. But I was worried about my child’s safety because he is a risk – and not just to me.”
On one occasion when the baby was crying, Griffiths screamed at the weeks-old infant to “shut the f**k up”.
Kniveton said that after their separation, Griffiths used the contact sessions to pressure her to return to him and to say publicly that she supported him, rather than using the time to focus on their child.
The family court made 14 findings against Andrew Griffiths, a former Conservative minister
He would “erupt” during contact visits and behave aggressively towards her relatives, she said. This behaviour led the same solicitor to advise that the meetings should move to being supervised in a contact centre.
Kniveton said that encouraging contact was the wrong advice but she could understand why the solicitor had initially given it.
In recent years there has been a growing trend of parental alienation being used as a counter-allegation by men accused of domestic abuse. In numerous instances, mothers accused of parental alienation have had their children removed by the family courts.
Family barrister Charlotte Proudman, who represented Kniveton in court, says parental alienation is used as a “weapon and a legal tactic” day in, day out in the family courts.
“I’ve seen cases where there have been findings of domestic abuse and then the father has alleged alienation at that point,” she told the documentary. “And I’ve seen children being moved from living with their victim parent to being put with their perpetrator parent.”
“Children are being put with abusive, dangerous parents […] because there is a pro-contact culture at all costs.”
