In an interview with FMT, William Bernet, professor emeritus at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said that in the S Deepa custody tussle, estranged husband Izwan Abdullah would not be looked upon favourably in American courts after having abducted his eight-year-old son, Mithran, now Nabil Izwan, from his ex-wife’s care.
“It is illegal to kidnap children, even if you are the father. In the US, the father who committed an illegal act would not be rewarded by (the courts) giving him custody,” Bernet said.
“Almost certainly, the court would return the children to the mother.”
Bernet opined that the court should not have relied on the opinion or wishes of the children, especially given that the father would have a considerable amount of influence over them.
“In cases like this, I do not think the court should rely on the opinions or wishes of the children. Obviously, the father has had a very long time to influence the son both directly and indirectly to (have the son) say that he wants to live with him,” he said.
He supported the view that a panel of child specialists be set-up to conduct custody evaluations and make recommendations to the court.
“The specialists would interview the parents and the children both individually and together to try to figure out what is best for the child,” Bernet said.
A possible outcome in the American court, he said, would see the court giving custody of both children to the mother, with “supervised visitation” with the father for a period of time.
“Perhaps later, the father will have unsupervised visitation.”
Bernet has particularly been involved in the study of forensic psychiatry e.g. the effects of divorce, child custody disputes, parental alienation and child maltreatment.