Online Divorce

Children of divorced parents are often portrayed as unhappy youngsters who are likely to become unhappy adults.

Low self-esteem, depression and behavioural problems: these are the most common effects of divorce on children.

However, a new UK report says they are usually temporary and that most children survive their parents’ divorce and develop normally.

With more than one in four children in Britain under 16 likely to experience the divorce of their parents, the report seems like good news.

But though challenging preconceptions, does it defeat them?

The absence of one parent does not play a major and lasting role in the child’s future psychological health, says the report.

It adds that some children of divorced parents may suffer long-term problems but the divorce itself is not necessarily the cause.

A woman suspected of beating her millionaire husband to death with a hammer was due to divorce him within a fortnight.

The body of Ferrari-driving businessman Richard Challen, 61, was found by officers at home on Sunday.

Sally Challen, 56, who split from him a year ago, drove 75 miles to Beachy Head and allegedly confessed before being talked out of jumping from a 500ft cliff by police.

Last night brother Terence Jenney, 74, said she was “depressed” after her husband spent months trying to stall a divorce by dodging talks.

Mr Jenney said: “The divorce should have gone through ages ago, but he just refused to co-operate.” Neighbours claimed there were tensions in the marriage after Mr Challen, convicted of fraud in 2006, had affairs.

The pair, who have two sons in their 20s, were said to have arranged a dinner on Saturday in Claygate, Surrey. Police are still quizzing her.

A NURSE who murdered his wife and tried to make it look like a car crash was given jailed for life yesterday.
Brent Mott, 32, strangled wife Kate, 35, at their home in Everard Road, Southport, in the early hours of 21 January this year in a row about their divorce.

The Recorder of Liverpool, Henry Globe, QC, jailed Mott for a minimum of 25 years.

The couple were in the final stages of divorce when Mott “lost all self control” during an argument.

The killer claimed that after returning from a night out, his wife attacked him with a knife.

He said they fell on to the marble hearth of their fireplace and she bumped her head as he tried to disarm her. He then said he strangled her with the pyjama top she was wearing.

But a doctor concluded that injuries to the side of her head were caused by a weapon and the ligature marks around her neck were caused by something other than her top, the prosecution said.

After the killing, Mott put her in their car and drove to a field where he superficially damaged the car and abandoned it.

Following a husband-friendly ruling by the Court of Appeal that soon-to-be ex-wives will no longer be able to use secretly obtained financial records to prove that their estranged husbands are hiding assets, the whole nature of ‘big money’ divorce cases is set to be transformed.

The court’s decision may mean that wealthy husbands will be free to hide assets which would normally be included in divorce settlements, so that their wives will need to fight harder to lay claim to any of it.

It is hoped that this ruling will transform the UK’s reputation for allowing women to see divorce as a profitable deal rather than legal proceedings designed to split assets fairly.