The parties engaged in a highly conflicted 16-day trial regarding parenting issues for their two children.
The mother had previously obtained a sole custody order for the older child against her former partner using a falsified DNA test, a scheme in which the father was found to be complicit.
The court found both parties engaged in family violence, including coercive and controlling behaviour, but determined the mother was more likely to marginalize the father and withhold information.
The court awarded the father final decision-making responsibility for health and education, maintained the existing equal parenting schedule, granted a declaration of parentage for the younger child, and authorized hyphenated name changes for both children, subject to notifying the older child's biological father of the fraud.