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If Helen remains in custody pending trial and Rob is still poorly and recovering from his injuries, Henry will probably stay in the care of his grandparents, Pat and Tony. I guess the local authority/social services will remain involved, too. Maintaining contact between Helen and Henry will be important and I’m sure steps will be taken to ensure that visits happen. At the moment there seem to be problems getting visiting orders sorted out. Anyhow, prison visits between Helen and Henry would not include Rob (Helen has to stay away from him because of the criminal proceedings) so he wouldn’t have an opportunity to punish her in person.
It occurs to me that now Henry has been interviewed by the police and is potentially a witness any contact would have to be supervised anyway to make sure neither Helen nor Henry spoke about “the events”. Plus, if Helen were released on bail, I don’t think she would be allowed back to Ambridge (because of the criminal proceedings) so she and Henry would not be able to live together. And that’s going to have a terrible effect on both of them. Helen’s mental health is already fragile so this is going to have a detrimental impact.
Managing contact between Henry and Rob will also be tricky. Pat is currently looking after him day-to-day and she will probably not like the idea that Rob can see Henry at all (assuming Rob is well enough to have visitors or go visiting). But I’m not sure about Tony. He’s ambivalent, to say the least. If Rob wants to see Henry, he has the right to do so as his step-father (with a step parental responsibility order) and he will be able to do so. Social services will assist if Pat is resistant.
Having said that, if social services are involved with this family, this is where Helen’s allegations of domestic abuse would become relevant and would be given more credence than they have been by the police so far. If Helen objects to Rob seeing Henry, social services will want to hear what she has to say and will want to carry out safeguarding checks and investigate her concerns. This might mean that after making their enquiries social services decide it isn’t actually a good idea for Henry to spend time with Rob.
I wonder whether the script writers are just going to concentrate on the criminal proceedings and not bother with the ancillary family proceedings because they’ve already got their hands full …
I’d love to hear from other Dum Tee Dum lawyers and social workers!
Anyway, I’ve read this article written by some truly, genuinely fine legal minds which leaves me a tiny bit of hope that it might not be too late to charge Rob with the offence of coercive control.
http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/article/murder-on-bbcs-the-archers-what-now-for-helen-titchener
(I’m not saying Anna Louise Tregorran isn’t worth her fee but Doughty Street Chambers are “the real deal” …)
Thanks for that detailed reply. Looks like if social services get involved and the abuse allegations become known, Henry may have a chance.
Henry and The Unborn have a reasonable chance of not being screwed up and will be protected in the short term as long as social services are told that there’s something to be concerned about.
So far it’s Kirsty making all the allegations. Helen’s going to have to say something at some point for her own sake. If she’s not careful, social services will take action to actually protect the children from her (on the basis that she cannot adequately protect them – not that she’s a danger to them) as well as from Rob. If Helen’s mental health was ever under scrutiny before that level of scrutiny is going to increase now.
Social services might want all manner of safeguards to be put in place but unless he’s believed to be a risk to the children and it’s deemed to be not in their best interests, Rob will be allowed to have contact with the children, continue to be a part of Henry’s life as his dad and get an opportunity to be dad to the new baby.
In many respects, it would have been better to kill him off. In theory, he could be hanging around making life difficult for Helen, Henry and the new baby indefinitely – until Henry and the younger child are adult and beyond.
A number of people are predicting that Henry will be damaged by this experience and may in turn become an abuser. That’s not necessarily true but in time we’ll see what becomes of him and The Unborn. Henry was always going to have an atypical development because he was born by donor insemination and had no father figure apart from his grandfather and uncle – until Rob.
Maybe you’re quite right, Jim: Henry is screwed …
Over on the Twitters on Friday the legal status of Rob’s relationship to Henry came up. Uncle Sir God Keri Davies clarified that Rob has a ‘Parental Responsibility Order’, not full adoption.
This got me thinking about will happen to Henry. I’m not sure he has the legal basis for doing so but I can’t help feeling that Rob is going to try and take charge of Henry, keep him away from his grandparents and then brainwash him & make him an asset in court. And as others have said Henry is his route to Piggy’s inheritance and the farm.
Very much hope I’m wrong. Bet I’m not.
The step parental responsibility order gives Rob “parental responsibility” which mean he has “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibility and authority” which by law a parent has in relation to his or her child. By extension, this means he can decide where Henry lives. Grandparents don’t have parental responsibility automatically. They don’t even have permission to go to court automatically to make applications in relation to their grandchildren.
So if Rob wants to take Henry away from the care of his grandparents he can. And if Pat and Tony don’t agree to letting him have Henry live with him, they’d have to apply to the court for permission to bring an application to prevent him.
This situation is becoming really tricky.
Right now, Henry is a prosecution witness. Every decision made about him has to be taken bearing his best interests in mind.
Right now, Rob is seriously ill. He’s not in a position to assume care of Henry. It remains to be seen whether when he is well, he will assert his parental responsibility and argue that Henry should live with him.
Social services may well have something to say about whether Henry should live with Rob especially if Helen makes disclosures about the domestic abuse and the “inappropriate” methods Rob used to discipline Henry (throwing away his toy bunny rabbit and chocolate, for example) …
Also, with Rob and Henry both being part of the prosecution case against Helen, I’d have thought Rob’s contact with Henry would be restricted just as Helen’s contact with Henry is being restricted. There’s a risk of collusion with Rob influencing Henry’s evidence and denying Helen a fair trial. There shouldn’t be any chance of Rob trying to “make Henry an asset in court”.
I reckon Pat could be in a tricky position, too, if she’s potentially a witness – whether for the prosecution or defence.
It would be better for social services to keep Henry with his grandparents or place him with other family members but in my mind I can’t rule out the possibility that he could end up being put in a foster placement.
I have no experience of wills and probate from my training or work experience in law, so I don’t even want to go down the route of speculating about what Rob might or might not get from Peggy’s will directly (because she makes a clear bequest) or indirectly (because of his evil shenanigans)!
Having said that … Rob appears to have divorced from Jess with no financial settlement. He also appears to have no assets of his own at the moment either and his income is drawn from his role in Helen’s family’s business. He doesn’t seem to have very much worth arguing over in terms of matrimonial finances but he is enmeshed in Bridge Farm. At some point he or Helen may kick off divorce proceedings. Following those proceedings, there may be some financial settlement. Future inheritances are not part of financial settlement on divorce but this doesn’t prevent a former spouse making a claim somewhere further down the line. Helen will be advised how to try and protect not only her inheritance but also her interest in Bridge Farm from Rob.
(Since Rob’s parents seem to be quite wealthy in theory Helen could also make a claim against anything he inherits from them, I imagine …)
And now I must STOP! This is getting in the way of my actual work!
Now you are coming around to my way of thinking, Rob’s the dad and can do what he wants with both Henry and the Unborn. Grandparents have very limited rights, certainly compared to a parent. I’d assume that a woman in jail has a pretty limited amount of say about her kids if dad is around, especially if she’s seen as crazy and violent. Rob’s going to get control of those kids because he knows that’s the sure way to get back at Helen.
By the way, it doesn’t seem realistic that social services would care about Tom the rabbit. As much as we might hate to admit it, Rob’s done very little that is actually bad parenting. He’s never actually hit Henry, just used him in a minor role for his evil games.
One question is how is Rob going to emerge – he could be all lovey dovey and forgiving and refuse to testify against Helen and we all go back to BHC to play ‘happy’ families all over again.
Or he could be bitter and twisted, want nothing to do with Ambridge, the Archer family or that little “abomination of nature” Henry, take his son an bugger off to Canada.
Or he could be happy to destroy Helen by taking Henry and the true born away while she sees out a reduced sentence due to a plea bargain; don’t know if she’d have the strength to get Henry back again when she comes out.
We’d all love to see Rob get his come-uppance but even if Helen is found not guilty as a result of abuse through coercive control, does that necessarily mean Rob would be found guilty (and I bet the penalty is a lot less than for attempted murder).
Without some very soapy meltdown on Rob’s part, I don’t hold out much hope for Helen or Henry.
I’m guessing the answer is #1, Helen will come back to him and they all move back to BHC. Reasons:
—This story line is going to last at least 2 more years, if Helen is in jail for that whole two years, it will be too boring.
–Likewise for Rob running away to Canada. They kept him alive because he’s a great villain, if he leaves the story is over.
— Helen is not talking to anyone, not even her barrister. She’s keeping it all a secret to facilitate going back to Rob. That way she can protect her children and the BBC can highlight the issue of abuse victims that return to their abusers again and again. The BBC gets the best of both worlds, simultaneously broadcasting a public service message that just happens to be as salacious and controversial as anything on East Enders.
This way, everyone gets what they want. Rob gets back Helen and can continue his evil, Helen gets out of jail and can see her kids.
Or … Helen files for divorce … good move or no?
Meanwhile, if Helen is able to open up to Ann and it does go to trial, Ann will walk Helen through the entire relationship, detailing all the hell Helen has been put through – that would “Shake Ambridge to it’s Core”
Above, Jim O’Hara said:
—This story line is going to last at least 2 more years, if Helen is in jail for that whole two years, it will be too boring.
This is the second reference to this 2-year timeframe I’ve seen today on the forums / fb groups. Obviously I’m missing something as I can’t find the source… Is this something Keri has revealed? Or was it stated by the BBC in some of the media frenzy surrounding the stabbing? I’d love to read the original quote if anybody knows.
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