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A man is lying dead in the middle of a park, he has a bag next to him, in the bag was something that could of saved his life.
What was in the bag?
What was in the bag?
Emma Chapelhows Story
Mother Jenette Plummer and Step Father MR Lee PLummer
YOU can imagine that in winter, with the rain streaming down, this patch of turf at the end of a winding, rock-strewn mud track, might not be the most hospitable place to live.
But when the sun's shining, and you're a horse-mad 14-year-old girl, it's idyllic.
My guy: Emma Chapelhow, 14, with her horse Cameron.
Picture: Jemma Cox C090410JC4-7
• • •
You can see why Emma Chapelhow loves being there. The recent school holidays saw her running around her father's 24 acres of farmland, in Wellow, near Ollerton, with her friends and her horse, Cameron, who has belonged to her dad since he was a two-and-a-half month old foal.
But all is not as it seems. The 24 acres, says Emma's dad, David, is mortgaged up to £550,000. The only permanent dwellings on the site are both being rented out as holiday cottages to make the repayments. So Emma doesn't live in a cosy farmhouse. Instead, she lives in a caravan with David and his wife, Gair.
The Chapelhows' financial situation has become crucial because of years of legal action that have been going on for most of Emma's life.
She hit the headlines last year when she spoke of suing the Child Support Agency in a joint action with her dad.
"I'm hoping I won't have to," she says. "Now I just want it to end. My dad is going to court every few months."
David felt close to his only child from the moment she was born. "Emma would fall asleep on my chest. She would come into work with me on the Tube. We just bonded," he recalls, fondly. Today they share the same love of music and horses and even have similar handwriting.
He and Emma's mother, who were together for four years, separated the day after his daughter's first birthday. He didn't see his child for 18 months then, over the next six years, he saw her two or three times a year.
Emma was two when David started trying to get regular access through the courts.
When Emma was four he won some supervised contact and used to drive down to Brighton, where she and her mum had settled. Emma came on her first visit to Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where David lives, when she was five.
"She loved it," says David.
In 2005, he won weekend contact every four weeks. Then one day, three years ago, Emma decided she wanted to live with her dad permanently. David put in an application for residence. Emma was interviewed by social workers who recommended a change in residency and, in October 2007 David, who was in France, received an e-mail from Janette Plummer (Emma's Mother)telling him to come and get Emma immediately. Emma was thrown out by her mother with just a small box and no clothing. She was collected by a childminder and looked after by David's sister until he could collect Emma.
That week a Judge granted the residency order that both Emma and David had dreamed of for for many years.
Emma Has not seen her mother for four years. Emma says that her mother just sold up, washed her hands of her daughter and moved away without even letting her own child know her whereabouts.
The family thought their days in court were finally over. But then the Child Support Agency got in touch.
Its role is to ensure parents who live apart from their children contribute financially to their upkeep.
David said it contacted him four years ago claiming his lifestyle was inconsistent with his income. He was told he owed nearly £50,000 for Emma's maintenance dating back to when she lived with her mum.
David acknowledges he may owe some money. It's the amount that's caught him off-guard. He says he simply doesn't have that kind of cash.
He paid child support when Emma lived with her mother, but said the ongoing legal wrangles and his different incomes down the years, including some time out of work, meant it varied. "At some stages it was nothing because I had nothing," he says.
David says the CSA has based his earnings on two loans he took out in 2000 and 2005.
"We bought this development as a business, then borrowed money against it," he says. "That went on the building work. The CSA is effectively saying that in 2005 I had an income of £500,000, even though that was a mortgage and a commercial loan."
At one stage, the CSA sent bailiffs to his property. Emma claims she heard one of them talking about selling one of her beloved horses.
In a statement, the CSA replies: "When an independent tribunal rules that a parent owes maintenance, we have a legal duty to recover the amount owed while protecting the welfare of any child affected.
"If reasonable repayment terms are refused, we will act fairly to secure the debt. We do not take property belonging to a child or seek the imprisonment, eviction or bankruptcy of the child's sole carer."
David is building more holiday cottages which, he hopes, will allow the family to reduce the mortgages and start work on a house.
He works off-and-on as a roofer but hasn't had a regular income for more than a decade. He says the family survive on his wife's income, with rent from the cottages going to pay off the loans.
His battles with the CSA have included three court appearances in the past three months. The most recent was this month in Nottingham Magistrates' Court where he was contesting a liability order from the CSA for a further £1,592.
The case was adjourned for 12 weeks to allow a further appeal regarding the total payments to be heard, with the chairman of the bench saying it would be "oppressive" to make an order that day.
David now manages without lawyers, having spent, he says, thousands on legal fees.
"It scares the wits out of me, walking into a courtroom," he says.
He stores great files of letters and court papers.
Ideally, he wants the legal actions to end with the CSA recognising their actions are affecting Emma's welfare and agreeing to drop the case.
"Hopefully," he says, "that would be an end of it."
Until then, David has five more court appearances this year which will consider the liability orders the CSA wishes to impose.
"The whole point of the CSA is to put the child first. But the bureaucracy can't deal with what's happened in Emma's case. There's no tick box they can stick her in. All their paperwork talks about the 'parent with care' without recognising that that parent has changed," he says.
"It's affecting Emma, all this. She's a bright, happy 14-year-old who has the stresses of the world on her shoulders."
Emma herself meets your eyes with that half-humorous, half-unimpressed gaze perfected by teenagers down the years. Asked how she would describe her childhood, she says, "There were good bits. Learning to ride was amazing; the best thing ever."
Emma wants to work with horses when she's older. For now, she's settled at the Dukeries College, just about to choose her GCSEs.
School may be settled, but Emma's home life is not.
"When I get home from school, they're normally stressed out because something's happened or my dad's on the computer doing legal stuff," she says. "I want it to be over so we can be a family. That's what I've wanted all this time."
Emma hates seeing the toll the court action is taking.
Luckily for her, David is pretty strong.
"There were times I thought about walking away," he admits. "It was just too much. The so-called professionals used to tell me, 'Let it go now. When she's older, she will find you.'"
"But," he says, "the worst I can lose now is money. Before, I stood to lose my daughter."
It was not possible to contact Emma's mother.
In a previous statement to the media, she said: "This amount was not decided by me, but by the CSA after a number of independent tribunals. It was incredibly hard making ends meet, especially when I was a single mother."
Emma's Mother does not pay any maintenance. It is also known that at any time she could ask the CSA to withdraw her claim and put an end to this matter for Emma's long term educational and emotional best interests.
Emma's mother has commented in the past that if the CSA do take Emma's home and place her father in prison, it will be hard, but important lesson to learn, but she has earned the money that is due to her via the CSA.
Mother Jenette Plummer and Step Father MR Lee PLummer
YOU can imagine that in winter, with the rain streaming down, this patch of turf at the end of a winding, rock-strewn mud track, might not be the most hospitable place to live.
But when the sun's shining, and you're a horse-mad 14-year-old girl, it's idyllic.
My guy: Emma Chapelhow, 14, with her horse Cameron.
Picture: Jemma Cox C090410JC4-7
• • •
You can see why Emma Chapelhow loves being there. The recent school holidays saw her running around her father's 24 acres of farmland, in Wellow, near Ollerton, with her friends and her horse, Cameron, who has belonged to her dad since he was a two-and-a-half month old foal.
But all is not as it seems. The 24 acres, says Emma's dad, David, is mortgaged up to £550,000. The only permanent dwellings on the site are both being rented out as holiday cottages to make the repayments. So Emma doesn't live in a cosy farmhouse. Instead, she lives in a caravan with David and his wife, Gair.
The Chapelhows' financial situation has become crucial because of years of legal action that have been going on for most of Emma's life.
She hit the headlines last year when she spoke of suing the Child Support Agency in a joint action with her dad.
"I'm hoping I won't have to," she says. "Now I just want it to end. My dad is going to court every few months."
David felt close to his only child from the moment she was born. "Emma would fall asleep on my chest. She would come into work with me on the Tube. We just bonded," he recalls, fondly. Today they share the same love of music and horses and even have similar handwriting.
He and Emma's mother, who were together for four years, separated the day after his daughter's first birthday. He didn't see his child for 18 months then, over the next six years, he saw her two or three times a year.
Emma was two when David started trying to get regular access through the courts.
When Emma was four he won some supervised contact and used to drive down to Brighton, where she and her mum had settled. Emma came on her first visit to Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where David lives, when she was five.
"She loved it," says David.
In 2005, he won weekend contact every four weeks. Then one day, three years ago, Emma decided she wanted to live with her dad permanently. David put in an application for residence. Emma was interviewed by social workers who recommended a change in residency and, in October 2007 David, who was in France, received an e-mail from Janette Plummer (Emma's Mother)telling him to come and get Emma immediately. Emma was thrown out by her mother with just a small box and no clothing. She was collected by a childminder and looked after by David's sister until he could collect Emma.
That week a Judge granted the residency order that both Emma and David had dreamed of for for many years.
Emma Has not seen her mother for four years. Emma says that her mother just sold up, washed her hands of her daughter and moved away without even letting her own child know her whereabouts.
The family thought their days in court were finally over. But then the Child Support Agency got in touch.
Its role is to ensure parents who live apart from their children contribute financially to their upkeep.
David said it contacted him four years ago claiming his lifestyle was inconsistent with his income. He was told he owed nearly £50,000 for Emma's maintenance dating back to when she lived with her mum.
David acknowledges he may owe some money. It's the amount that's caught him off-guard. He says he simply doesn't have that kind of cash.
He paid child support when Emma lived with her mother, but said the ongoing legal wrangles and his different incomes down the years, including some time out of work, meant it varied. "At some stages it was nothing because I had nothing," he says.
David says the CSA has based his earnings on two loans he took out in 2000 and 2005.
"We bought this development as a business, then borrowed money against it," he says. "That went on the building work. The CSA is effectively saying that in 2005 I had an income of £500,000, even though that was a mortgage and a commercial loan."
At one stage, the CSA sent bailiffs to his property. Emma claims she heard one of them talking about selling one of her beloved horses.
In a statement, the CSA replies: "When an independent tribunal rules that a parent owes maintenance, we have a legal duty to recover the amount owed while protecting the welfare of any child affected.
"If reasonable repayment terms are refused, we will act fairly to secure the debt. We do not take property belonging to a child or seek the imprisonment, eviction or bankruptcy of the child's sole carer."
David is building more holiday cottages which, he hopes, will allow the family to reduce the mortgages and start work on a house.
He works off-and-on as a roofer but hasn't had a regular income for more than a decade. He says the family survive on his wife's income, with rent from the cottages going to pay off the loans.
His battles with the CSA have included three court appearances in the past three months. The most recent was this month in Nottingham Magistrates' Court where he was contesting a liability order from the CSA for a further £1,592.
The case was adjourned for 12 weeks to allow a further appeal regarding the total payments to be heard, with the chairman of the bench saying it would be "oppressive" to make an order that day.
David now manages without lawyers, having spent, he says, thousands on legal fees.
"It scares the wits out of me, walking into a courtroom," he says.
He stores great files of letters and court papers.
Ideally, he wants the legal actions to end with the CSA recognising their actions are affecting Emma's welfare and agreeing to drop the case.
"Hopefully," he says, "that would be an end of it."
Until then, David has five more court appearances this year which will consider the liability orders the CSA wishes to impose.
"The whole point of the CSA is to put the child first. But the bureaucracy can't deal with what's happened in Emma's case. There's no tick box they can stick her in. All their paperwork talks about the 'parent with care' without recognising that that parent has changed," he says.
"It's affecting Emma, all this. She's a bright, happy 14-year-old who has the stresses of the world on her shoulders."
Emma herself meets your eyes with that half-humorous, half-unimpressed gaze perfected by teenagers down the years. Asked how she would describe her childhood, she says, "There were good bits. Learning to ride was amazing; the best thing ever."
Emma wants to work with horses when she's older. For now, she's settled at the Dukeries College, just about to choose her GCSEs.
School may be settled, but Emma's home life is not.
"When I get home from school, they're normally stressed out because something's happened or my dad's on the computer doing legal stuff," she says. "I want it to be over so we can be a family. That's what I've wanted all this time."
Emma hates seeing the toll the court action is taking.
Luckily for her, David is pretty strong.
"There were times I thought about walking away," he admits. "It was just too much. The so-called professionals used to tell me, 'Let it go now. When she's older, she will find you.'"
"But," he says, "the worst I can lose now is money. Before, I stood to lose my daughter."
It was not possible to contact Emma's mother.
In a previous statement to the media, she said: "This amount was not decided by me, but by the CSA after a number of independent tribunals. It was incredibly hard making ends meet, especially when I was a single mother."
Emma's Mother does not pay any maintenance. It is also known that at any time she could ask the CSA to withdraw her claim and put an end to this matter for Emma's long term educational and emotional best interests.
Emma's mother has commented in the past that if the CSA do take Emma's home and place her father in prison, it will be hard, but important lesson to learn, but she has earned the money that is due to her via the CSA.
- I am 14 years old and I feel, as the judge told me, that this is all about me and that I have a right to have a say in what happens in my future. The judge said I was competent to instruct my own solicitor and for the first time ever I felt that I was listened to and understood. I was moved to a place I used to call my sanctuary. I now ask you to listen carefully and think about my future.
-
- I spoken to Gair and my Dad who have suggested I try and tell you what I think the effect will be on me of my home being sold and me becoming homeless, losing my horse and the opportunity to open my own stable after I have finished university. And my father being placed in prison. Just to pay the mother who took my child hood away, who does not care for me and has deserted me. I have tried to answer this but the effect is so great that I can’t put it in words. I will say that if this world cannot see the negative effect of the CSA’s actions and the actions of my mother on me then I simply would not with to be part of this world.
- In October 2007 the Courts removed me after I begged them and was given the opportunity to tell them the truth. It is true that my mother’s reaction was to throw me out on to the streets at the age of 11, with noting at all. My life with her was a constant battle and I lived in fear of her moods, punishments and control. I was also terrified of my step fathers violent temper.
-
- I came to live with my dad and Gair and I was placed in my dads care. My mother does not communicate with me in any way and has not done for 2 years. I now don’t even know where she is.
- I am happy now I live with my dad even though it has been in a caravan in the field, it is cold damp and small, but have been the happiest I have ever been, My dad and Gair have kept there promise. I know that he loves me totally and will do anything and everything for me and my future. He promised me that I could at least enjoy what little I had left of my childhood. As I lost most of my younger childhood being investigated by people my mother got to look at me. I still have horrible nightmares about life with my mum and am petrified of her and my step father.
-
I thought that when the Court removed me and placed me in my dads care that the fighting would end. I have known nothing else the whole of my life. The judge promised that my mum would not be able to harm me or my father any longer, and I cannot believe that my mum can still control our lives and keep the fight going through the CSA. We have no peace and are constantly living in fear of her investigations and letters to anyone she can think of.
I was always aware that her life revolved around hurting and destroying my dad it was her only job she would brag to her friends. She made it clear to anyone and everyone how much she hated my dad and was always running him down in front of me. I can’t believe that she is still trying to do this now I live with my dad when she knows it will affect me too. I had hoped that she would love me enough to drop the hatred and move on in her life. The money and revenge is worth more to her than her own child.
My mum’s Janette Plummer last email to me before she suddenly disappeared said that she still loved me and that the door would always be open for me. (if I could find her). All I know is that she has sold her house in Brighton but I don’t know where she is. She has even changed her email address. All I know and feel is that my mum doesn’t care about me and is just interested in money.
I have attached my e-mail for you to read.
I am aware of what the csa are trying to do and I have been for quite a while now. Even I can understand that the child support agency is not supporting me in anyway by pursuing this. I also understand that the money the csa want will go to my mother.
I feel that the CSA have forgotten that they are here to support children. It is not about money and not all fathers are evil and hide from their responsibilities.
- My mum hurt me for eleven years and her goal in life is to destroy my dad and then be given £50,000 as a reward from the csa. |I am only 14 years old, but I cant see how losing my home and having my father put in prison to compensate the mother who took my childhood away is good lesson for me to learn. She now wants to take my home, which is my special place away from her. My father has always been there for me, no matter what. I am a child and who wants to move on and forget the past. How can I go to University, if my mother gets her revenge.
I can not believe that my mother (Janette Plummer) who could if she wanted to just put a stop to all of this. The why won’t she.
I ask you not to fail me as the other professionals did for many years. Let me have the normal family life I have a right to over and above the wants of my mother, as the judge said.
- My horse lives in a field with no luxuries and he is all I have got and he is all that kept me going through the hell my mother put me through. I kept a photo of my pringle hidden under my bed as my hope.
- As my father did my mother has a duty to look after me.
Please do not become another professional that has failed me and try to see things from my point of view.I know I am only 14 and a child but I want to look forward, plan and hope for good things in my future. Let me have my childhood and future above my mothers wants…….
Emma chapelhow
-
- I spoken to Gair and my Dad who have suggested I try and tell you what I think the effect will be on me of my home being sold and me becoming homeless, losing my horse and the opportunity to open my own stable after I have finished university. And my father being placed in prison. Just to pay the mother who took my child hood away, who does not care for me and has deserted me. I have tried to answer this but the effect is so great that I can’t put it in words. I will say that if this world cannot see the negative effect of the CSA’s actions and the actions of my mother on me then I simply would not with to be part of this world.
- In October 2007 the Courts removed me after I begged them and was given the opportunity to tell them the truth. It is true that my mother’s reaction was to throw me out on to the streets at the age of 11, with noting at all. My life with her was a constant battle and I lived in fear of her moods, punishments and control. I was also terrified of my step fathers violent temper.
-
- I came to live with my dad and Gair and I was placed in my dads care. My mother does not communicate with me in any way and has not done for 2 years. I now don’t even know where she is.
- I am happy now I live with my dad even though it has been in a caravan in the field, it is cold damp and small, but have been the happiest I have ever been, My dad and Gair have kept there promise. I know that he loves me totally and will do anything and everything for me and my future. He promised me that I could at least enjoy what little I had left of my childhood. As I lost most of my younger childhood being investigated by people my mother got to look at me. I still have horrible nightmares about life with my mum and am petrified of her and my step father.
-
I thought that when the Court removed me and placed me in my dads care that the fighting would end. I have known nothing else the whole of my life. The judge promised that my mum would not be able to harm me or my father any longer, and I cannot believe that my mum can still control our lives and keep the fight going through the CSA. We have no peace and are constantly living in fear of her investigations and letters to anyone she can think of.
I was always aware that her life revolved around hurting and destroying my dad it was her only job she would brag to her friends. She made it clear to anyone and everyone how much she hated my dad and was always running him down in front of me. I can’t believe that she is still trying to do this now I live with my dad when she knows it will affect me too. I had hoped that she would love me enough to drop the hatred and move on in her life. The money and revenge is worth more to her than her own child.
My mum’s Janette Plummer last email to me before she suddenly disappeared said that she still loved me and that the door would always be open for me. (if I could find her). All I know is that she has sold her house in Brighton but I don’t know where she is. She has even changed her email address. All I know and feel is that my mum doesn’t care about me and is just interested in money.
I have attached my e-mail for you to read.
I am aware of what the csa are trying to do and I have been for quite a while now. Even I can understand that the child support agency is not supporting me in anyway by pursuing this. I also understand that the money the csa want will go to my mother.
I feel that the CSA have forgotten that they are here to support children. It is not about money and not all fathers are evil and hide from their responsibilities.
- My mum hurt me for eleven years and her goal in life is to destroy my dad and then be given £50,000 as a reward from the csa. |I am only 14 years old, but I cant see how losing my home and having my father put in prison to compensate the mother who took my childhood away is good lesson for me to learn. She now wants to take my home, which is my special place away from her. My father has always been there for me, no matter what. I am a child and who wants to move on and forget the past. How can I go to University, if my mother gets her revenge.
I can not believe that my mother (Janette Plummer) who could if she wanted to just put a stop to all of this. The why won’t she.
I ask you not to fail me as the other professionals did for many years. Let me have the normal family life I have a right to over and above the wants of my mother, as the judge said.
- My horse lives in a field with no luxuries and he is all I have got and he is all that kept me going through the hell my mother put me through. I kept a photo of my pringle hidden under my bed as my hope.
- As my father did my mother has a duty to look after me.
Please do not become another professional that has failed me and try to see things from my point of view.I know I am only 14 and a child but I want to look forward, plan and hope for good things in my future. Let me have my childhood and future above my mothers wants…….
Emma chapelhow
24th April 2010
IN THE NOTTINGHAM MAGISTRATES COURT
BETWEEN
MR DAVID CHAPELHOW
and
THE CSA
STATEMENT OF EMMA CHAPELHOW
1. I make this statement and confirm that I am the child that the Child Support Agency are supposedly collecting monies for and that these monies are for my upkeep and benefit.
2. I must let the Court know that I have been deemed competent to instruct solicitors in my own right. With this in mind, I believe that I can have a say in the conduct of the Child Support Agency with regard to any alleged arrears owed by my father and how the actions of the CSA will affect my future.
3. I understand and have read Article 2 of the 1981 CSA Act. I have also read the Child Welfare Check List and the first section of the 1989 Children Act.
4. I understand that the Court may consider it unusual for me to be involved at this time. However, I understand that CSA matters are family matters and that the Court today is sitting as a Family Court. Again, with this in mind, I believe that the Court has a duty to hear my wishes and feelings and to understand the impact of the CSA’s actions on me – the child in question.
5. This Court must ascertain any physical, emotional and education needs and the likely effect the Court’s decision will have upon my future. It also must consider any harm which I will suffer or I am at risk of suffering. It is paramount that the Court should consider the welfare of the child, not only in Children Act proceedings, but also in Article 2 of the Child Support Agency Act.
6. I think it is important for the Court to understand my history. I was born in January 1996. I have been told that, for whatever reason, my father and mother separated in February 1997. I understand that my father spent the next 10 years fighting for my rights to be protected and allowed to have a good relationship with him.
7. I am aware that for the first 8 years the Judges and the Courts were not willing to accept what was really happening in my life. All they were interested in was looking at my father to find fault. Both the Courts, the social services and the Judges failed to protect me because they simply could not accept that my father was there to protect me and that my mother abused me.
8. It is clear and accepted that my mother has never had my true interests at heart. I believe that her only motivation was one of revenge and obsession. This revenge and obsession was directed at me throughout most of my young life. The Courts finally started to protect me by making Prohibitive Orders preventing my mother from having me examined by psychiatrists, the Child Protection Unit, or any other professional.
9. I cannot put into words how this affected me but I still live in fear of my mother and the violence I witnessed at my step-father’s hands.
10. In October 2007 a new Judge gave me the opportunity to reveal the truth. This resulted in my mother evicting me from my own home as soon as she had sight of the report. I left home at the age of 11 with nothing but it was one of the happiest days of my life. I thought that it was all over. I was to move and live with my father. He would then be able to protect me and I could get on with enjoying with what little was left of my childhood.
11. I have described my father’s home as my sanctuary to many of the so called professionals. They simply failed to understand what I was trying to say.
12. The Court ordered that there was to be no contact between myself and my mother. The Court further ordered that my mother could make no applications for a period of 18 months.
13. It is clear to me that my mother’s hatred of my father outweighs any feelings she may have for me. I know from conversations with my mother that it is her one and only goal to destroy my father in any way she can. I cannot believe that my own mother would not put a stop to this by simply withdrawing from the CSA. She is putting her own revenge and financial gains above her own child. I also cannot believe that the CSA would allow a mother to use them as a form of revenge to harm my father and as such, to harm me.
14. The CSA have made it clear that my father could be in prison and that my home will be possessed and I will become homeless so that they can compensate the mother who abused me.
15. I am only 14 years of age. However, I am aware and suspect that if the roles were reversed the CSA would not support a man who had abused his child. I am sure that the Family Courts would not support and compensate a man who had abused his child.
16. I believe that the CSA have forgotten why they were set up. They have forgotten who they are there to benefit. They have forgotten that this is about me – the child – and not the RP or a political and financial tool.
17. We have no money. The actions of the CSA can only have one outcome. If they decide to put the wants of a mother who had her child removed for years of abuse above the needs of that child now, then that child will be made homeless. This will affect my whole future life.
18. My mother lives in a large bungalow on the seafront in Brighton. She has several foreign holidays a year. We never wanted for anything and money always seemed plentiful. My father and my now home is a caravan in a field because my father had to rent out his home to pay the legal costs for me to be safe and living with him.
19. However, my mother will be able to retire to the Italian Lakes and the CSA will be able to say that they managed to get money out of another deadbeat father.
20. The Court should be aware that I am issuing proceedings, firstly against the CSA for failing for the first 12 years of my life and then for compounding that failure for the last part of my childhood.
21. I am also issuing proceedings against my mother in the hope of gaining a Prohibitive Steps Order or an Injunction to protect myself from her current actions.
22. The enforcement action of the Court and a Judgement today in favour of my mother and the CSA could have an affect on my applications. I believe that I have a right to defend myself without the fear of enforcement action and homelessness. The CSA may hide by saying that they are taking money from my father but in real terms they are attempting to take money from me, money that I need now and for my future.
23. I ask the court to give my father the time and right to defend himself in the correct appeal courts, without the fear of enforcement and the fear that we as a family will be made homeless and my father placed in prison. I have a right to family life.
EMMA CHAPELHOW
IN THE NOTTINGHAM MAGISTRATES COURT
BETWEEN
MR DAVID CHAPELHOW
and
THE CSA
STATEMENT OF EMMA CHAPELHOW
1. I make this statement and confirm that I am the child that the Child Support Agency are supposedly collecting monies for and that these monies are for my upkeep and benefit.
2. I must let the Court know that I have been deemed competent to instruct solicitors in my own right. With this in mind, I believe that I can have a say in the conduct of the Child Support Agency with regard to any alleged arrears owed by my father and how the actions of the CSA will affect my future.
3. I understand and have read Article 2 of the 1981 CSA Act. I have also read the Child Welfare Check List and the first section of the 1989 Children Act.
4. I understand that the Court may consider it unusual for me to be involved at this time. However, I understand that CSA matters are family matters and that the Court today is sitting as a Family Court. Again, with this in mind, I believe that the Court has a duty to hear my wishes and feelings and to understand the impact of the CSA’s actions on me – the child in question.
5. This Court must ascertain any physical, emotional and education needs and the likely effect the Court’s decision will have upon my future. It also must consider any harm which I will suffer or I am at risk of suffering. It is paramount that the Court should consider the welfare of the child, not only in Children Act proceedings, but also in Article 2 of the Child Support Agency Act.
6. I think it is important for the Court to understand my history. I was born in January 1996. I have been told that, for whatever reason, my father and mother separated in February 1997. I understand that my father spent the next 10 years fighting for my rights to be protected and allowed to have a good relationship with him.
7. I am aware that for the first 8 years the Judges and the Courts were not willing to accept what was really happening in my life. All they were interested in was looking at my father to find fault. Both the Courts, the social services and the Judges failed to protect me because they simply could not accept that my father was there to protect me and that my mother abused me.
8. It is clear and accepted that my mother has never had my true interests at heart. I believe that her only motivation was one of revenge and obsession. This revenge and obsession was directed at me throughout most of my young life. The Courts finally started to protect me by making Prohibitive Orders preventing my mother from having me examined by psychiatrists, the Child Protection Unit, or any other professional.
9. I cannot put into words how this affected me but I still live in fear of my mother and the violence I witnessed at my step-father’s hands.
10. In October 2007 a new Judge gave me the opportunity to reveal the truth. This resulted in my mother evicting me from my own home as soon as she had sight of the report. I left home at the age of 11 with nothing but it was one of the happiest days of my life. I thought that it was all over. I was to move and live with my father. He would then be able to protect me and I could get on with enjoying with what little was left of my childhood.
11. I have described my father’s home as my sanctuary to many of the so called professionals. They simply failed to understand what I was trying to say.
12. The Court ordered that there was to be no contact between myself and my mother. The Court further ordered that my mother could make no applications for a period of 18 months.
13. It is clear to me that my mother’s hatred of my father outweighs any feelings she may have for me. I know from conversations with my mother that it is her one and only goal to destroy my father in any way she can. I cannot believe that my own mother would not put a stop to this by simply withdrawing from the CSA. She is putting her own revenge and financial gains above her own child. I also cannot believe that the CSA would allow a mother to use them as a form of revenge to harm my father and as such, to harm me.
14. The CSA have made it clear that my father could be in prison and that my home will be possessed and I will become homeless so that they can compensate the mother who abused me.
15. I am only 14 years of age. However, I am aware and suspect that if the roles were reversed the CSA would not support a man who had abused his child. I am sure that the Family Courts would not support and compensate a man who had abused his child.
16. I believe that the CSA have forgotten why they were set up. They have forgotten who they are there to benefit. They have forgotten that this is about me – the child – and not the RP or a political and financial tool.
17. We have no money. The actions of the CSA can only have one outcome. If they decide to put the wants of a mother who had her child removed for years of abuse above the needs of that child now, then that child will be made homeless. This will affect my whole future life.
18. My mother lives in a large bungalow on the seafront in Brighton. She has several foreign holidays a year. We never wanted for anything and money always seemed plentiful. My father and my now home is a caravan in a field because my father had to rent out his home to pay the legal costs for me to be safe and living with him.
19. However, my mother will be able to retire to the Italian Lakes and the CSA will be able to say that they managed to get money out of another deadbeat father.
20. The Court should be aware that I am issuing proceedings, firstly against the CSA for failing for the first 12 years of my life and then for compounding that failure for the last part of my childhood.
21. I am also issuing proceedings against my mother in the hope of gaining a Prohibitive Steps Order or an Injunction to protect myself from her current actions.
22. The enforcement action of the Court and a Judgement today in favour of my mother and the CSA could have an affect on my applications. I believe that I have a right to defend myself without the fear of enforcement action and homelessness. The CSA may hide by saying that they are taking money from my father but in real terms they are attempting to take money from me, money that I need now and for my future.
23. I ask the court to give my father the time and right to defend himself in the correct appeal courts, without the fear of enforcement and the fear that we as a family will be made homeless and my father placed in prison. I have a right to family life.
EMMA CHAPELHOW
Sometimes it just seems to get nuttier and nuttier out there.
Case in point: Great Britain's Child Support Agency is threatening to jail a father and sell his house to satisfy his child support debt. The only trouble is that the girl who's the subject of the support order lives with him. So what the CSA wants to do is jail her custodial parent and put her on the street. All of which is in her interest according to the CSA. In fact, both father and daughter say that paying the amount will bankrupt him, which would of course severely affect her. And the money would go to her mother with whom she no longer lives. Meanwhile the mother has never paid a shilling in child support. So the girl is suing CSA.
Did you follow all that? If any of it makes sense to you, be sure to let me know. Read about it here (Daily Mail, 12/30/09).
It seems that 13-year-old Emma Chapelhow is fed up. Her parents, David Chapelhow and Janette Plummer divorced at some point, with Emma going to live with Janette. David paid child support, but the CSA, unilaterally and apparently without giving David the opportunity to contest the ruling, decided to radically increase the amount based on "lifestyle being inconsistent with income." In the U.S. we call that 'imputed income.' In other words, the state decides that a parent is hiding income because he/she seems to be living a more lavish lifestyle than the income reported would support.
Maybe the CSA based its decision on Emma's pony, Pringle. Who knows? But however it arrived at its conclusion, at some point it presented David with a bill for £43,000 which he says he can't begin to pay. So he started fighting the ruling which has further depleted his resources. Currently, he and Emma live in a caravan (travel trailer) so they can rent their house to make ends meet.
And the CSA which seems dead set on bankrupting Emma's custodial father, hasn't so much as peeped about child support from Janette.
All of that has raised the ire of 13-year-old Emma, who's filed suit against the CSA. Two years ago, a court ruled that Emma was mature enough to "instruct her solicitor," which means she could decide what parent she wanted to live with. She chose her father whom she calls a 'hero.'
He's joined her suit against the CSA, which is legally obligated to "have regard to the welfare of any child likely to be affected by their decisions." Emma, David and their legal representation apparently believe that tossing the dad in prison and selling his assets to pay a debt that may or may not be legitimate to a mother who no longer has custody and who does not herself pay to support her daughter, violates the CSA's duty of 'regard.' Fancy that.
Just in case the CSA hadn't behaved enough like a Mafia enforcer, it sent the bailiffs out to seize Pringle under the nose of the distraught Emma. Apparently it was just a bluff, but terrorizing a 13-year-old whose best interests you're supposed to be protecting makes sense, doesn't it? In any case, seizing an asset that seems to be the child's to satisfy a parent's support obligation to that child is surely a first.
Case in point: Great Britain's Child Support Agency is threatening to jail a father and sell his house to satisfy his child support debt. The only trouble is that the girl who's the subject of the support order lives with him. So what the CSA wants to do is jail her custodial parent and put her on the street. All of which is in her interest according to the CSA. In fact, both father and daughter say that paying the amount will bankrupt him, which would of course severely affect her. And the money would go to her mother with whom she no longer lives. Meanwhile the mother has never paid a shilling in child support. So the girl is suing CSA.
Did you follow all that? If any of it makes sense to you, be sure to let me know. Read about it here (Daily Mail, 12/30/09).
It seems that 13-year-old Emma Chapelhow is fed up. Her parents, David Chapelhow and Janette Plummer divorced at some point, with Emma going to live with Janette. David paid child support, but the CSA, unilaterally and apparently without giving David the opportunity to contest the ruling, decided to radically increase the amount based on "lifestyle being inconsistent with income." In the U.S. we call that 'imputed income.' In other words, the state decides that a parent is hiding income because he/she seems to be living a more lavish lifestyle than the income reported would support.
Maybe the CSA based its decision on Emma's pony, Pringle. Who knows? But however it arrived at its conclusion, at some point it presented David with a bill for £43,000 which he says he can't begin to pay. So he started fighting the ruling which has further depleted his resources. Currently, he and Emma live in a caravan (travel trailer) so they can rent their house to make ends meet.
And the CSA which seems dead set on bankrupting Emma's custodial father, hasn't so much as peeped about child support from Janette.
All of that has raised the ire of 13-year-old Emma, who's filed suit against the CSA. Two years ago, a court ruled that Emma was mature enough to "instruct her solicitor," which means she could decide what parent she wanted to live with. She chose her father whom she calls a 'hero.'
He's joined her suit against the CSA, which is legally obligated to "have regard to the welfare of any child likely to be affected by their decisions." Emma, David and their legal representation apparently believe that tossing the dad in prison and selling his assets to pay a debt that may or may not be legitimate to a mother who no longer has custody and who does not herself pay to support her daughter, violates the CSA's duty of 'regard.' Fancy that.
Just in case the CSA hadn't behaved enough like a Mafia enforcer, it sent the bailiffs out to seize Pringle under the nose of the distraught Emma. Apparently it was just a bluff, but terrorizing a 13-year-old whose best interests you're supposed to be protecting makes sense, doesn't it? In any case, seizing an asset that seems to be the child's to satisfy a parent's support obligation to that child is surely a first.
(all wearing parachutes)
A team of crack paramedics from Holby City
Cheese
duh... Parachute!