Hello, Im an irish Atheist looking for any help or advice for my bro in Nelson currently self-defending in a custody battle against his ex and her brethren lawyers. Having won custody in May when ex admitted in court to striking my two nephews on several occasions, 'chastisement' was recommended by her pastor (who has called my bro demonic:he is a catholic/has exposed the lads to unbrethren influences like bouncy castles or whatever), he took the boys off for two weeks to Queenstown to recover  and on return was served with court papers  accusing HIM of child cruelty (this from an ex who went to court two years ago to change custody so she could have weekends off as she has a new brethren partner). Having spent 10,000bucks on the first case he is now forced to self defend. He has been denied contact with the boys for 3 weeks now and is being railroaded thru the courts by a (highly)church-paid QC who has had the may ruling overturned, not by disproving the chastisement issue but on a claim of bad lawyer representation. He tried to deal with it himself, mainly an effort to not worry our mum (the classic dotting granny but who is seriously ill) but we family members all recently got a dodgy  email from the ex which seems like a lawyer-written  fishing expedition for some 'evidence' to present and thats how we found out. From 70% custody to zero is killing him, my nephews are seriously upset by this sudden wrench from their dad  and cant understand whats happening and from what im finding out in my research to help him, he seems to be in ground zero of exclusive brethren in NZ. I know these fuckers have form so im reaching out in the hope that someone here has some help or advice as time is running out. Maybe someone knows a sympathetic lawyer who has dealt with these god-fearing but hardly child-caring fanatics. Is there any groups you know of that might have advice? His MP nick Smith has successfully fought them successfully on a similar case in 2003 but his party and he himself seem 'ok' with them now so does anyone have  any recent news/advice on that route that might be helpful???? This is a real urgent request for any help you might be able to give,