The next few weeks were full of court hearings, core-group meetings, meetings with Meg and Daphne, meetings with Val Nuttall and meetings with her solicitor.  At every court visitation, Sarah’s arm was twisted further behind her back as Jimmy Oliver forced her to ‘agree’ more contact.  He was now making it clear that due to the registration she was walking a tightrope, her stance was now weakened and she could not afford to dig her heels in or she risked upsetting the magistrates and losing her babies altogether to her arch-rival.  He was still insisting that they were being sensible and playing it the right way. Every time they were in court, Greg’s solicitor Kelvin Boor was itching to have a dig at her about her kids being registered ‘at risk’.  Sarah had to grit her teeth and bite her tongue as Boor, on his feet to address the court, always began his patter with a line such as:

            “Unfortunately Ms Hawthorn’s children have now been registered ‘at risk’.  She and her family are currently undergoing a Comprehensive Risk Assessment and Psychiatric assessments....”

            She also had to endure letters from Burkes solicitors saying that due to her “unstable mental state” and her “difficulties in coping” it would be wise for their client to have his children for two or three days and nights per week to help her cope with her stress and relieve the strain that she was under.

            And all the while Jimmy O was pushing her to give more contact and pressing her to agree to overnight stays.  Every time she asked about the school welfare reports on Kim and Lee, she was fobbed off.  Jimmy O would tell her that he’d written to the opposition solicitor to request them; then he said he’d contacted the welfare officer; then he insisted he’d been in touch with the school.  But these turned out to be lies.  However Sarah was ever patient and ever trusting, hoping and praying that her solicitor was a man of his word. 

            Jimmy Oliver also began nagging her about the business of Parental Responsibility.  Once again he emphasized that she is far better off offering an olive branch and ‘agreeing’ it rather than having the justices enforce it.  He hinted that she would be expected to ratify this pretty soon.  He played down its importance by saying that it meant nothing really - just that it was recognition of Potter being the father and that as such he would have a father’s rights.  When questioned what that meant Sarah learned that he’d have a say in the important issues such as health and education.  Her solicitor explained that the issue of Home Education or School would have to be arbitrated by the court anyway regardless of whether Potter had been awarded PR by then or not.

Meanwhile she had to put up with Greg’s threats, skits and verbal abuse at changeovers.  He’d tell her that he’d got it in for her, he’d say that his mates were watching David and Anna, that her kids had been seen smoking and sniffing glue and that David would soon be going to a correction centre for naughty boys.  He’d say that her looks would be much improved with a face-full of stiches and he constantly reminded her that the police and social services were on his side and that she will soon lose Jason and Jessica. 

            Sarah would say very little to him.  She was terrified of him.  But on one particular day, she glowered at him and snarled:

            “If you or any of your henchmen hurt any of my kids I will kill you.”  And she meant it too.

            Jason and Jessica continued to hate their forced departures from her and she hated having to hand them over.  They literally fell apart when she left them at the church. They would scream and cry and look at her with sorrowful, disbelieving eyes.  She hated having to prise their little fingers from her.  When their father tried to pick them up, they turned themselves into planks and their little arms would stretch out to their mummy.  Well-meaning church staff insisted that once she’d gone her babies always settled down and that they even enjoyed playing with other toddlers.  She hoped that that was the case.  She couldn’t bear the thought of her little babies constantly crying and upsetting themselves.

            After every session with their father her babies were different.  They were distraught, uptight, upset, hyper, clingy, destructive and whingy.  They threw their toys in frustrated rage, they lay on the floor screaming and crying, Jason would bite members of the family and would run into the walls.  Sarah had to spend an hour or longer after every visit on a calming down ritual.  They clung to her like frightened pups and they began sucking earnestly on their fingers and thumbs.  Jason developed toileting problems and began holding on to his excrement.  He’d perch on the loo but he’d refuse to go.  Then he regressed back into his nappies.  At night time, Jason would cry out “no,no,no” in his sleep.  He began to thrash his body around in bed and whack his head against his pillow and Jess sometimes awoke screaming and trembling for seemingly no particular reason.

            Of course the social workers, welfare officer and court didn’t care one jot about the drastic change in her babies’ emotional state or that contact was hindering their development.  Sarah had been slow to understand that this was in their best interests!  The social workers even tried to blame her for Jason’s and Jessie’s newly acquired unhappy disposition, which wasn’t surprising considering the fact that they were still listening to her maleficent ex. 

            HE was still taking the proverbial piss out of social services, NSPCC, childline etc with his umpteen trumped up referrals [most of which were still under the guise of anonymity] and he was still calling Meg and Daph and inviting them to his house to discuss Sarah and her mental constitution.  He managed to convince them that Sarah was, amongst other things, scaring his children with her talk of spooks and ghoulies.

Meanwhile Valeria Nuttall continued to distort the truth about Greg’s and Sarah’s circumstances.  Her reports created the image of quarrelsome parents, equally bad and neither caring about their children’s needs.  She used trickery and impartiality and accused the parties of collecting evidence for the sole purpose of denigrating each other in court.  Sarah was swimming against the tide.  She couldn’t get it through to the welfare officer that she was floundering in thick gooey porridge, trying desperately to expose the truth about Greg in order to limit any future damage to her babies which was planets apart to her arch-enemy’s criminal evil objective.

            All Valerie could state was that Jason’s and Jessica’s emotional needs would be severely hampered and Jason and Jessica will be damaged if they grow up amongst the continuing saga of acrimonious allegations.  The welfare officer was oblivious to the fact that Gregory Potter was unreasonable, irrational, constantly attacking his ex-fiancee, criminally calling out the authorities, determined to trigger care proceedings and hell bent on destroying her and her children. 

            It was impossible for Sarah to mediate with such a monster.  Yet it was Sarah who got all the blame - for being hostile!  She was in a no-win situation.  Greg Potter was so smarmy and so believable that he had Val, Meg and Daph wrapped right round his little finger.  He would tell them outrageous lies, for example, that Jason had said “mummy in bed – man.”  The truth was Jason was too young to say such things and anyway Sarah slept in the same room as her toddler son because he became too distressed and unsettled at nighttimes and he suffered nightmares.  But never-the-less Sarah was grilled about it.

            One of Val’s reports focussed mainly on the fire and the supernatural activity.  Sarah cringed when she read it and knew that the cards were stacked heavily against her now.  And all because she’d been too truthful.  Val had stated that social services were now heavily involved with her family to determine if she poses such a risk to her children that care proceedings should be instigated.  Of course, nothing in the report referred to Greg’s parenting of Kim and Lee and all his involvement with social services and the EWO.  It just wasn’t common practice for a court welfare officer to delve into the backgrounds of both parents for suitability.  The attitude of Val, Meg and Daph was that it was not necessary to check back on the parties’ previous parenting because the procedures are about the two babies not about any older children that either parent may have.  To Sarah, that smacked of a cop-out. 

            After much reluctance Meg did finally phone Miss Jones but she insisted that what she learned was irrelevant to the current situation.  The attitude was that Kim and Lee were now grown up and functioning normally.  Sarah was steaming with rage.  Didn’t anyone care that Kim and Lee were emotionally and physically abused by their father and that both are still terrified of him and oppressed by him?  Didn’t it bother them that two head-teachers, other school staff and neighbours were seriously concerned about their welfare?  Didn’t they see the importance of making sure that such a violent man and abuser of children posed no threat to his younger children?  And as such didn’t they think it imperative to obtain official documentation of the EWO’s findings in relation to Kim and Lee?  The answer was a crushing “no” to all of her questions.  Sarah was told that if she wished to pursue such reports she’d have to ask her solicitor for their disclosure.  Talk about buck-passing and fudge up! 

            Sarah had a sneaky, sickening feeling that if the boot was on the other foot, such reports would be well and truly on show by now for all to scrutinize and she’d have been thoroughly penalized because of them.  There again Sarah knew that if she’d been guilty of even a smidgen of Greg’s impressive track record she’d have been doing her X months/years at HM’s pleasure long before now. 

They were brought before the court where a JP called Birtwhistle was presiding.  It was supposed to have been a day of cross-questioning and an opportunity for Sarah’s solicitor to expose creepy Greg Potter for the truly appalling fake and evildoer that he really was.  Jimmy O had promised his client that he’d make her look good in court.  But none of it materialised.  The estranged couple were brought before Lord Birtwhistle for Sarah only to receive the slapping down of her life.

            Birtwhistle fixed his penetrating black eyes on Sarah for the whole of the ten minute hearing and he addressed only her:

            “You are contradicting yourself.  On the one hand you say that the father is a bad influence and a danger to your children and on the other you agree to small increases every so often.  You are coming here to say that you now agree to Mr Potter having Parental Responsibility.  You are coming here to play games with us.  Therefore I see no reason why Mr Potter shouldn’t have substantial access to his children UNSUPERVISED.  He has proved himself to be a dedicated and involved father.  I suggest that he sees them at least four mornings per week.  You do realise, don’t you that I have the power to send you to prison if you don’t respect the court order?”

            Sarah was just about to butt in with a vain hearted protest.... when....

            “Silence please,” Birtwhistle boomed.  “You are aware, aren’t you, that these proceedings are strictly about serving the best interests of Jason and Jessica?  Your hatred and hostility towards their father must be kept entirely in check.”

            He then proceeded to read from one of the welfare reports:

            “They are totally unprepared to work together, discuss, plan or agree on anything or make reasonable arrangements regarding their children.”  He then continued with his lordly lecture:

            “I see this sort of thing all the time; two people constantly at each others’ throats.  You must endeavour to put your personal feelings to one side and focus strictly on the needs of your children.  Please don’t waste the court’s time in future.”

            Sarah was spitting blood.  That malevolently minded bloke sitting on his sanctimonious steeple wouldn’t give her a chance to speak.  In his eyes her ex was an angel - the innocent party - whilst she was a dragon.  It was utterly outrageous.

“You told me we were playing this the right way,” snarled Sarah to her solicitor on their way out.

            “Sorry I didn’t realise that we weren’t going to be allowed a proper trial.  He’d made his mind up and that was that.  I still say we’re playing it right tho. I’ve got over twenty years experience in this job.  Trust me, I know what I’m doing.  Anyway, you should thank your lucky stars that you’re not black.  I’ll agree with you tho, it is an unfair world.  Some people go to prison for a parking offence....”

            “Have you got any information on those records yet; about Kim and Lee?”

            “Er, no, but I have written to the school.  If we get no joy there we’ll order them through the court next time.”

            “The courts stink. One day, Birtwhistle and his fellow justices will pay for what they’re doing.  They’ll have to answer to God,” said a solemn Sarah. 

            “I believe in God too,” remarked Jimmy Oliver.

On her way home, Sarah sank deeper in to the dregs of despair.  She wanted to bellow her indignation and grief at the whole world.  She wanted everyone to know about this gross injustice.  She was losing her babies.  What had she done to deserve that?  Didn’t anybody care? Was anybody listening?  Oh how badly she wanted to squeeze the gizzards out of that pompous prat and hang them up to dry from the courtroom rafters.  He wasn’t God.  What right did he have to sentence her babies to misery and pain?  Why was her despicable ex-partner protected?  Nobody would say anything bad against him yet she was criticised and persecuted.  Why?  He had clout, but why?  Who was he?  Damn it.  WHO THE HELL WAS HE?  Today’s session was phoney.  It was a kangaroo court.  She was sure everything had been agreed beforehand.  Her thoughts bubbled and stewed.  Everyone was ganging up on her and she was sinking deeper and deeper into the horrific suction of an icy black abyss. 

            Ever aware David could read her thoughts and he repeated to her what she already knew anyway deep down in her heart:

            “Mum, your solicitor is part of the problem.  Get rid of him.  I keep telling you he’s not on your side; he’s on Greg’s.”

Sarah wrote to a couple of tabloid newspapers hoping to expose her heartbreak at having to hand her babies over to a monster and the wrongdoings of the powers that be that enabled this to happen.  But they said they would not get involved due to the ongoing legalities.