Simen & Simen No 2 2014 FamCA 752

The case involved a father who admitted using pornography but denied any suggestion of using child pornography.   The father had been acquitted of a charge of sexual misconduct involving his niece.  An allegation had been made that the father had sexually abused his daughter and the mother took the daughter to counselling.  The daughter had shown signs of anxiety.  The father sought supervised access with children aged 6 and 3 years but the mother opposed any direct contact.

Although the father acknowledged an addiction to pornography that he used daily, the father had taken no steps to submit reports to Court to demonstrate that this addiction did not impact on his parenting capacity.

The judge ordered that the father’s time with the children be supervised by a contact centre and be conditional on therapeutic assessment of the behavioural issues involving his use of pornography (access conditional).  The mother was restrained from taking the children to any therapist.