Australian Fathers' Rights Activist Lionel Richards Dies

I have just received word that Australian fathers' rights activist Lionel Richards has died.

Lionel Richards founded Ozydads, an affiliate of the Shared Parenting Council of Australia (SPCA) and the Council for the Status on Fathers. He was very active in trying to get presumptive joint custody made into law in Australia in 2004. He had expected it to pass. Like many fathers' rights activists, he was livid when it was rejected. Richards has called 2004 "the year of the Struggle Against Slavery."

Here are some choice quotes by Lionel Richards from fathers' rights mailing lists. They speak for themselves.

Lionel Richards wrote on a fathers' rights mailing list that "[t]he Shared Parenting Council of Australia has been lobbying the government for Family Law reform to a rebuttable presumption of Equal Shared Custody with mandatory mediation, and I believe that we are going to get it."

In the deceptively insular security inherent in Internet mailing lists, Richards let his "shared parenting" rhetoric slip. Since he was preaching to the choir and not trying to impress legislators with how child-friendly he pretended his position was, he felt free to be more honest in continuing the thoughts he had expressed above. Overly confident that fathers' rights activists would have their demands met, he continued:

"The House of Reps Inquiry is about to release its recommendations to the Australian Government in a matter of weeks. Hopefully the rest of the world will follow suit and the wall of misandry surrounding custody matters will come tumbling down, along with the evil Chief Justice who has been presiding over such misery and heartache for so long and who would not even be in the job now if he had not acted improperly and manipulated the system. The Family Court's Chief Justice Nicholson is a misandrist arsehole who should be sacked and charged with crimes against humanity along with all others of his ilk. When he is gone I will join thousands of his other victims in a pilgrimage to his grave to piss on his headstone in disrespect."

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When shared parenting was rejected, this was Richards' livid reaction:

In an email to "solicitors and parents of broken families," Richards ranted about the new recommendations. He hoped that they " will never be implimented or we may as well organise a mass castration of all virile males, to keep the suicide rate from going through the roof." He had warned that "Prime Care leads to sole custody which is a fertile breeding ground for Parental Alienation," even though Parental Alienation Syndrome is not recognized by reputable medical and legal experts as a valid medical condition. It is not in the DSM-IV, the "bible" of the American Psychological Association. PAS and more generic forms of "alienation" are weapons favored by men who retaliate against their ex-wives and ex-girlfriends who allege domestic violence and child abuse.

Richards let his guard down much more on another fathers' rights mailing list from Canada. He wrote, "Alas the long awaited report into Shared Custody is a crock of #$%^."

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The Final Report by the committee hearing testimony about family law did not give Richards what he wanted, so he tried to incite reactionary behavior from fathers' rights activists. In an especially alarming threat, Richards ranted on a fathers' rights mailing list that " [t]here are many AussieDads who have been waiting for this report and I am now advising them ALL to FILE an application for FULL CUSTODY straight away." He had already given this advice to one angry dad, suggesting that "(without delay) you file an application in the Family Court for 50/50 shared parenting, or depending on your circumstances even go for FULL CUSTODY. DO NOT use a lawyer but represent yourself. As bad as it is, the Family (kangaroo) Court is much better than the tribunal administered by feminist psychologists and misandrist social workers." He described this threatening tactic in his January 1, 2004 letter to the Prime Minister. He did not speak at all of what is best for children. Instead he ranted about "entranched misandry."

He wrote that "[t]here are thousands of disenfranchised fathers in Australia who have been patiently waiting for the long overdue reforms to the Family Law system and many of these dads will now start filing custody applications in the Family Court as self represented litigants. Even with the Family Court's bias, these fathers will stand a far better chance of wining their case than they will in the new tribunal." He claimed Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson was in "direct opposition to the rights of children of separated parents to continue their relationship with both their mother and their father."

He had announced that "[t]he SPCA will continue to pressure the government and we will not let them rest. Letters to ALL politicians asking them to involve in the problems and consume lots of hours chasing wild geese. Maybe if it’s costing them money having to employ extra staff to cope with the huge demand, they will rethink their position before the matter goes before the senate. It ain’t over yet and we will keep up the battle despite the odds."

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Shared parenting remains rejected in Australia. Cottage industries related to mediation and custody and psychological evaluations and parenting plans are currently being set up. Fathers' rights activists in Australia continue to not see their demands met. Lionel Richards was one fathers' rights activist who was incensed that fathers' rights demands were not being bowed down to. It remains to be seen who - if anyone - will take his place at the helm of Ozydads and SPCA.