The sad tale of Bruce Hyman's conviction, in 800 years he is the first ever barrister to have been jailed for perverting the course of justice , is a salutary tale for all UK fathers.
Firstly and already covered here (link) it shows that fathers are the whipping boys and that family law and family courts are so accustomed to ruling against fathers, it was probably seen as a formality that he could get away with his crime.
His crime was to send a father an e-mail purporting to be from Families Need Fathers with information that could have helped his custody battle. When the father used it , Hyman then in court claimed the e-mail was false. The father proved Hyman had set him up, however, if it was not for the father's resourcefulness, then he would have been the one facing jail.
The story is well covered in the Telegraph (link), Mail on Sunday (link), The Times (Link) and The Guardian (link).
The other salutary tale surrounds the all too common victimhood claimed by friends of those who break the law. There was an outpouring of sympathy for Bruce Hyman from the great and the good, including actress Maureen Lipman.
No outpouring though about the sympathy needed for the father (and his children) who would have gone to prison if he hadn't proved he had been framed, and no doubt, for far longer than a year in these anti-male, all-fathers-are-bad- especially-if-they-want-access-to-their-children times. That is where the sympathy needs to be.
Families Need Fathers in their excellent style produced a release (link) on this story and the view from John Baker, their Chairman is
"FNF is pleased to have played a part in ensuring that this case was fully investigated and one hopes that sharp practice of this order is exceptional. However, the English family courts are secret and in the normal course their proceedings are subject only to the limited scrutiny of the Court of Appeal. Much goes on in family courts that would be unacceptable if more widely known.”
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