I think before this disintegrates we can agree that within the law the rights of the children are upmost but that as a parent or a grandparent there are precedents and legal arguments that would allow sensibility to occur. If the grandparents are a large part of the day to day life of a child then it would not be unusual for the grandparents to be granted some access in a custody order.
Child protection is a difficult and different issue. The QPS and DOCS would have had to have significant evidence to suggest that the children were at grave physical and emotional risk to have them taken from the BC's even with GBC in gaol. My understanding is that OW is designated guardian and that hasn't been followed. Even though GBC may have harmed his wife and under law there is a presumption of innocence, he has not to my knowledge harmed his children. I truly believe that there is something else in the pipeline for this family otherwise the Dickies would not have been able to gain temporary custody. I also understand that the Dickies had been completely cut off form the girls recently which may also have been an influencing factor. Sorry I cannot expose my source on this so MOO
Regardless of what we think or feel and believe me I feel a lot about this issue. Nothing has yet been proven. No one has been convicted and there is a lot of trial by media and a lot of attitude about who and what people think on this forum. We are entitled to believe what we believe and to raise an opinion. I so didn't want it to go down like this. I don't want GBC to have had anything to do with this. I have struggled to mesh what I know of this family and what is sprouted by others now and find they don't quite mesh.
I shudder to think what spin people could take on my life if it were put under this kind of scrutiny. See one situation one way, twist the view a fraction through someone else's eyes and see something completely different. I think this is the issue we in this community are struggling with. How could we live, work and play beside this family, socialise with them, have play dates with their daughters and not see any of this evil. Those girls have lost everything. I don't know how they come back from that even with loving grandparents. They have been exposed to evil and potentially evil their father brought in the door.
I hope that sensibility reigns in this and the girls are utmost in everyone's mind when decisions about them are made. They need very special handling and a major custody dispute is not in their best interests.