Prof Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson

“They tried to bury me, they didn’t realize I was a seed.”
- Sinéad O’Connor

Legendary Sinéad O’Connor endured several highly publicized and deeply traumatic battles with the Irish family court and the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) regarding the custody of her children.

Sinéad vocally condemned the Irish family court system and Tusla, arguing that the state unnecessarily tore struggling mothers away from their children. Her battle against the family courts and child services received international attention. In 2017, she posted tearful videos about the family court crisis and her own experiences, prompting Support Not Separation campaigns and drawing the attention of the Irish President.

The family court battles took a massive toll on her and her children’s health and wellbeing. Her son tragically died by su***de in 2022 at age 17, an event that further devastated her and worsened her mental health. Sinéad passed away the following year in July 2023.

Do the Math: Most Women Stay Silent

“Every year, 34.000 men in London are reported to the police for domestic, child abuse, and sexual violence. Meanwhile, 800.000 women nationally say that they have been sexually assaulted. Do the math. Most women do not report and false allegations are incredibly rare.”
Prof Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson

(Figures from National Crime Agency 2024; British Crime Service 2024; Metropolitan Police 2024)

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Alarmingly, filicides by parents have followed some court-ordered contacts of children with divorced parents whom the children feared and rejected. Parental su***des have, in some cases, followed the filicides. Courts have justified their orders for contact on the grounds of allegations of parental alienation, although previous child abuse and domestic violence are known probable predictors of tragic events. To prevent these murders and su***des, courts need to consider the lack of evidence for parental alienation and the abundance of evidence that earlier violence predicts poor outcomes after divorce. Three filicide narratives are presented as examples of court-associated murders of children by parents. Limitations of our present knowledge base are emphasized, and systematic investigation of family court-associated filicides is urged.

Just out in the new APSAC Advisor issue:

Mercer, J., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Corwin, D.L., Moses, L., and Pollack, D. (2026). Family Court-Associated Filicides: Child Murders Preventable by Judicial Decisions. ASPAC Advisor, 39(2), 19-31.https://apsac.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Advisor-39.2_Final-Draft.pdf

“What can be more traumatic than for a mother to have her baby taken away at birth? At three days old? Within 15 minutes notice from a midwife? It is monstrous.”

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/ : Forskningen är tydlig: Barn ljuger inte om vad som sker bakom stängda dörrar.

Barn som berättar om våld och övergrepp ljuger inte. Forskning pekar snarast på ett stort mörkertal och att falska uppgifter är extremt ovanliga.

Statistiken säger att det är maximalt 1-3% där uppgifterna visar sig vara falska. Det är till och med osäkert om dessa verkligen var falska uppgifter, eller om vissa barn snarare drar tillbaka sina uppgifter då de är rädda eller inte orkar fortsätta med rättsprocessen.

Trots detta påstår man att barn aldrig frivilligt tar avstånd ifrån en förälder och att uppgifter om våld, framförallt sexuellt våld, nästan alltid är ett ”bevis på påverkan” från den förälder som barnet tyr sig till.

Forskningen visar tydligt att detta inte stämmer. Att utredningar läggs ner betyder inte att våld inte har förekommit, utan enbart att det inte fanns tillräckligt med bevisning för en fällande dom.

I andra fall har barnet tvingats av en våldsam förälder att lämna uppgifter rörande våld, som en del i misshandeln av den andra föräldern.

Vill du läsa mer om forskningen kan du gå in på denna länk: https://www.visomkamparforvarabarn.org/prof.-sonja

Följ oss och stå bakom oss i kampen för barnen.