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His Honour Judge Robinson Bem stressed the importance of publishing the judgment in AB v CD to show the negative behaviours experienced by all involved in the family law process.
The judge outlined how a previous hearing this year had been cut short on the second day after the barrister for the father in the case had raised safety concerns with the court’s head of security. These concerns were so serious that the barrister, who was not named in the ruling, had said she could no longer represent her client.
During the conference, the father had said there would be an ‘honour-based killing’ and that his ‘name will be in the papers’ for what he intended to do to the judge and to the mother’s barrister.
The barrister said her client had made a ‘series of deeply disturbing and threatening statements including that his seven-year-old daughter may come to harm’. She added: ‘These comments were made to me directly, without any provocation or misinterpretation. I no longer feel professionally or personally safe acting for him.’