Over the years I have often written pieces finishing with the sentence “I wonder could this possibly have happened if this man was a woman”.

Here is another one.

A woman walks into a District Court and tells the judge that seven years ago, my client had a row with her because he suspected she was seeing another man. He was accused of touching her in a way that constituted an assault.

They separated shortly afterwards and ever since then my client has been fighting to gain access to his son, with whom he has a terrific relationship.

There have been many court hearings since and this alleged incident has never been mentioned. It was mentioned a few weeks ago and the judge, without hearing anything my client had to say, granted a protection order pending the hearing of a safety order and then granted her a safety order for three years.

My client was not represented at the safety order hearing because he could not believe that this completely contested incident, which was supposed to have happened un-witnessed by anybody over seven years ago, could possibly result in a negative finding against him. I have been in court with men over the years and I have been in court with women over the years where my clients have been soundly criticised by judges because they waited two weeks to come in to court to complain of an incident, which they said put them in fear.

My client has now come to me and we are appealing the matter. It will result in my client incurring substantial legal fees but he feels he has no choice because he cannot have a black mark like this against him.

All I will say is – it wouldn’t happen if he was a woman.