Beth doesn’t know when she will see her children again

BETH Alexander, the Manchester mother involved in a bitter custody battle with her Viennese husband, does not know when she will see her four-year-old twins again.

HAPPYDAYS: Beth with Sammy and Benji

Beth has been allowed access to Sammy and Benji for six hours each Tuesday and on alternate Sundays — when her husband, Michael, who has custody, has not cancelled the visits. The handover has to be supervised at an official centre.

Now the centre is no longer prepared to continue the arrangement and, with Dr Schlesinger rejecting suggested alternative methods, Beth’s brief period with the twins on Tuesday could be the last for some time.

She said: “As I handed my children over at 5pm today, I hugged them and kissed them, not knowing when I will ever see them again.

The last official visit at the centre was last Tuesday (January 28) but as a gesture of ‘goodwill’ (at 44 Euros) the centre agreed to supervise one last handover today.

“I should legally have had a visit on Sunday too but the centre were unable to do it and the father wouldn’t agree to any alternative.”

Beth added that it could take months until any new decisions are taken.

She said that Dr Schlesinger had refused every suggestion put to him, including offers to supervise the handovers by Austrian Chief Rabbi Paul Eisenberg and Rabbi Shlomo Hofmeister. She went on: “His lawyer wrote to the kindergarten last week banning them from speaking to me or even sharing any information about the children’s progress or welfare with me.”

Beth, who was recently refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, is fighting to have the case reopened.

She said sadly last night: “Over the past two and a half years, I have spent thousands of hours (almost four hours travel time each visit) as well as thousands of Euros on these visits.

“Access to my children has been made as burdensome as possible for me and as stressful as possible for the children (almost two hours on public transport) and contact broken on every possible occasion under every pretext, sometimes no excuse at all.

“Despite all that, our mother-child bond is far from broken. When will I see my precious children again? When will Sammy and Benji be with their ‘Mama’ again?”

Jewish Telegraph Front Page

Jewish Telegraph 7th February 2014