I met his mother in the Australian Navy while at recruit school. I left
the navy, six months later, Tanya Louise Bates rings me up at home in
Murrumbateman, NSW, just outside the Australian Capital Territory. She
tells me she was six months pregnant. As I had been told by her what her
father had done to her I was terrified about a child of mine being brought
up in a family like that. She was being manipulated by her mother Louise
Armstrong to stay quiet about the sexual abuse. I asked her to tell the
police but she wouldn't as her mother was telling her to stay quiet for the
families sake.
i went down to the Mornington Penninsula, Rosebud, Crib Point etc to try and
persuade Tanya Bates to come back up to Murrumbateman with me. It succeeded
as she moved up to Murrumbateman, then into Canberra. We lived in a small
two bedroom flat when James was born. He was born at the Royal Canberra
Hospital.
Due to the incredible stress that her family was putting on Tanya Bates,
James was born premature. I remember looking at him and wondering wether he
was mine or not because his mother had slept around. It took me until 2001
after a DNA test to truely accept he was my genetic offspring.
I got married just after James was born out of fear for what would happen to
him. I was terrified and there was no way that I was going to allow him to
be taken back down to Victoria.
Life continued, love developed between Tanya Bates and I, Samantha was born
but it was stressful and unhappy at the same time. I used to be
frightened to pick up the phone just in case it was her family. Everytime
Tanya Bates talked to them it would mean trouble. I spent the entire time
of our short marriage trying to stop her going back to Victoria and being
around her father.
While studying Geology at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW I
left Tanya Bates. I could no longer cope with the arguments about her
family and it had caused the destruction of my health and studies.
My brother helped her to go back to Canberra where my family helped her to
get a government home. The children were happy, they had a good life.
James used play in the back yard while his grandad sheered the sheep. He
was a happy child. So was Samantha.
I divorced Tanya Bates through the Newcastle family courts in NSW.
Tanya Bates decided to move back down to Victoria to be around her family
one christmas. Her brother Simon Armstrong came up to Canberra and went
down to Victoria together. There was nothing I could do about it. What
she had said about her family was hearsay and I couldn't prove to the police
that the children were in danger.
I spent several years feeling ashamed and distressed because I knew that my
children were in danger and could do nothing about it.
Tanya Bates and I eventually got back together. She promised me that she
had stopped being involved with her family. I moved down to the
Mornington Peninsula to try things again. Not long into being back
together she became pregnant with Nickolas. It was at this time that she
decided she wanted to be back with her mother and father. As I couldn't
prove anything to the police there was nothing I could do about it. I was
also disabled and suffering from serious depression. I used to spend most
of my time in bed sick.
Just after Nickolas was born she used to force me to allow her peadophile
father into my home to be around the children. I stayed in the bedroom out
of the way because I couldn't cope with being around him and knowing what
was likely to happen. I also used to go out for a drive in the car when
they came around. After Nickolas was alive for just one month I left. I
lied to Tanya Bates and said I was going to my parents for a short holiday.
Tanya Bates and I, the kids met up with my mum and dad half way between VIC
and NSW. I held my son Nickolas in my arms and kissed him goodbye. That
was the last time I ever saw him.
For six years I spent stuck at home in bed with Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome
and depression. I had all the guilt that my children were going to be
abused and I couldn't do anything about it. All I knew was hearsay, I
couldn't do anything. It was a living hell.
Nearing 2000 Tanya bates rang my father at HMAS Sterling in Western
Australia saying she was having problems with James. He was destructive, a
threat to his brother and sister and was telling lies. She was concerned
about false accusations. She stated that if we did not take him she was
going to put him into foster care.
As we were going to be moving back to England a clause was placed in the
child contact and custody agreement lodged at the Western Australian law
courts. Stating that we could leave the country without any issues from
either party.
James was a problem at his school at in Western Australia, hitting children,
stealing their lunches. He used to tantrum on the floor, throw things and
become violent. When we got back to England the trouble really started. As
I was disabled with Post Viral fatigue syndrome and depression I had a
social worker, James was monitored by social services and had a specialist
child psychologist to help him with his problems. Mum and dad came round
three times a week to help with housework, cooking etc.
James started stealing, hurting children at school, lying and bullying. He
used to pretend that he was being bullied but it was actually him doing the
bullying. He stole their food, pencils etc. Minor stuff at first. Then he
started to hit and threaten children with sticks and knives. He used to
help me with the dishes and play with the blades of the carving knives
menacingly in front of me. He used to do this in the lounge while watching
tv. He used to go grab a knife and do this until I took it off him. Then
things progressed to him threatening me with knives and furniture. He used
to urinate all over the lounge if he didn't get his way. He used to sit on
the stairs and repeat time and time again " I hate you dad, I'm going to
kill you in your sleep". I slept with a chair at my door. On several
occassions I woke up in the morning with him hovering over me. On one
occassion he attempted to kill his grandfather by smashing an iron flask
against his head while he was driving. He tried to kill his grandfather by
throwing an iron spear at his chest.
Then things got really bad. He accused me of trying to strangle him with my
bear hands, beating him, placing a knife to his throat and the biggy.
Threatening him with a knife. On the worst night of my life, I had the flu
on top of the Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome and was very weak, James attacked
me with a hammer. He lunged forward several times and said he was going to
smash up the computer. I got a knife out of the kitchen because I was
terrified and told him to drop the hammer, he did. PURE AND FUCKING SIMPLE
SOCIAL SERVICES, IT'S CALLED SELF DEFENCE. EVER WONDER WHY THE POLICE DID
NOTHING ?
His remedial school tutor who was an ex Lowestoft magistrate judge came
around the next day and James told her that I had attacked him with a knife.
She immediately left the house. Next day social services and the police
were on my doorstep. James was taken away under Section 20 of the child
act, voluntary foster care. They investigated the situation, he was found
to be fit, healthy and unharmed. Unmarked, nothing. They refused to let
me see him without a social worker present so I told them to go fuck
themselves and I refused to see him. It wasn't until his first foster
placement when he attacked a child with an axe and chased them down the road
and killed their family cat, throwing it up in the air, snapping it's neck
then dumping the body outside the door that they realised what was going on.
We went to a meeting to bring James back home at one stage and I got
nothing but A FUCKING VERBAL APOLOGY !!! SOCIAL SERVICES SCREWED UP AND ALL
I GOT WAS A FUCKING VERBAL APOLOGY. They wanted me to have James back at
home but at the meeting his foster carers Dave and Lynn placed the sharps
and knives on the table that he had been using to threaten children with on
the table. My mother turned around to the social workers and said " no way
are we doing this, your on your own, you evil little bastard" We walked out
of the meeting amongst protest from the social workers.
He could not go to a normal school as he was excluded. No suffolk foster
family would take him because of his behaviour. There were many more
incidents of criminal behaviour, threatening behaviour. Too many to list.
I visited James on and off during his first few years of foster care but it
was difficult because of what he had lied about. I always said to him,
Social Services, I stated it to the Lowestoft child protection team, "give
me six months good behaviour and you can come home".
IT WAS ALWAYS THE DECISION OF JAMES IF HE WANTED TO COME HOME. HE HAD THE
CHOICE TO CHANGE HIS BEHAVIOUR.
Sometime around fourteen years of age, James made the revelation that he was
sexually assaulted by Ronald Armstrong. He was penetrated anally at age
four under the supervision of his mother Tanya Louise Bates, in the home of
Ronald and Louise Armstrong. This was confirmation of my worse fears. I
had repeatedly asked him prior to this if anything had happened to him but
he said no. I told Lowestoft police that I didn't understand why he made
the revelation now and not before. Apparently it was due to James thinking
this was normal behaviour.
At the age of fourteen Dave and Lynn, his foster carers who ran a halfway
house for asylum seekers etc in the same home as James had had enough. It
was not a normal foster placement because no family would take him. He was
dangerous to himself and everybody around him. After burning his wallpaper,
destroying his room. Threatening the other disturbed children that were
there. Then finally trying to POISON DAVE AND LYNN WITH WHITE SPIRIT by
placing it in their tea water. It was over. He also destroyed the next
door neighbours priceless artwork and fed bleach to their pet rats in their
water tray killing them.
James had a psycological assessment done by the education department and it
was determined that he was an extreme risk to himself and to children around
him. It was recommended that he was to be placed in a restricted and
supervised facility with one on one supervision because of how dangerous he
was.
Around this time I made a request to the Suffolk Police force under the Data
protection act concerning the false allegations that he had made about me.
When I read what he had said I was very angry and I asked him to go down to
the Lowestoft Child protection people and tell them the truth. He wouldn't
. After alot of trouble and legal bullshit between social services and
the police the information was removed from my file. Social services had
the gaul to deny that any allegation or incident with a knife had taken
place. I told James he wasn't part of this family until he told the truth.
Once he did, he was welcome to return home.
James was removed from Suffolk and taken to Kent based on a lie by social
services. I was told by his social worker that by signing these papers
James was going to be placed in a specialist facility and given the close
supervision and care that he needed. I WAS LIED TO. He was taken down to
kent and placed in a normal foster placement. HIS FOSTER PLACEMENTS DOWN IN
KENT WERE LIED TO ABOUT HIS PREVIOUS BEHAVIOUR.
Due to what social services had done I was given no choice but to refuse to
perform any parental responsiblity for James because in giving my permission
for anything further for James I was legitimising what social services had
done and it was criminal neglect as he wasn't receiving the proper care..
At eighteen I gave James another chance to redeem himself. Unfortunately I
had the horrible task of having to tell him about his mother and the past.
He couldn't cope with the information. After all who would ? being told
that your mother was made to sleep with the family dog doesn't exactly make
anybody feel good. Well, he decided to accuse his family of lying again.
It hurt me, his father, his grandparents deeply at being told you are lying
after what he had lied about. I ended up calling him a bunch of well
deserved hurtful names.
James has been in foster care because he did it to himself. All he had to
do was say sorry. James was a deeply disturbed child and a screwed up young
man.
I HOPE THAT CHILD ABUSER TANYA LOUISE BATES AND HER PEADOPHILE FATHER BURN
IN HELL. YOU DESTROYED MY SON AND DESTROYED HIS ONLY GOOD FAMILY