How can a mother keep a father away from their children?

This the situation in my story:

Husband cheats and the woman gets pregnant. She makes a scene in a super-market

The wife is gets mad, she divorces the man.

Well... I was thinking that she somehow forces him to give her sole custody and to never contact their children. I was thinking in blackmail, but can't quite think about the specifics (or even *what* the blackmail could be about, it could be based on lies)

Any ideas?

edit: later this is revealed to their children, causing a split in the family, also, the father "prefered" to stay away from the kids because he was somehow ashamed.

edited 22nd May '11 5:35:48 PM by Bluelantern2814

The laws are pretty bent towards female custody. The right circumstances and it would be pretty easy.

I think.

I don't know custody laws that well, but the father had not contact with the boys (for 10+ years)

EDIT: also, I want to make it look like something that the mother kept as a secret, sense... well if your father never contacted you during your childhood/adolescense you would be pretty Sad about it.

edited 22nd May '11 5:41:49 PM by Bluelantern2814

Then why don't you research them?

Yeah, custody laws are really female-biased. So make that two people thinking that it would be pretty easy to get away with.

I will, the problem is the "blackmail" part of the story.

Couldn't she just take a picture of say the dad with some girl (maybe underage) and say she would reveal they were dating/seeing each other.

Or say she would tell everyone he abused her and their children. Those would do it for sure.

The boys know that their father cheated, so a picture with a girl is hardly a problem, but the underage bit could have some potential: The "misstress" is a girl that they both met when she was underage, so the mother might believe that their affair started when the girl was too young. It wouldn't look nice in a court anyway, so they made a *deal* where the father would give full custody.

The mom could make the courts believe that the father is somehow mentally unhinged and that it's dangerous for him to be around the children. I'm thinking of the first Santa Clause movie and how the mom almost got sole custody of Charlie because Scott thought he was Santa.

As a lot of people have said, the courts are extremely biased in favour of mothers in these cases. Doing what you're talking about is a pretty simple matter.