Judge Divides FLDS Child Cases

Nearly four months after the largest child-custody case in U.S. history commenced, Texas 51st District Judge Barbara Walther has broken it up, leaving 234 separate cases involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Walther split Case No. 2902 - which included more than 300 children - into 110 cases grouped by mother, and Case 2903, which included more than 30 children, into nine cases, also grouped by mother. They join 115 cases filed separately by the state's Child Protective Services agency, which removed nearly 440 children from the sect's Schleicher County compound in early April.

"This is something we've known all along needs to be done," said Tom Green County District Court clerk Vicki Vines. "Nobody had a good enough grasp on it (until now). Everybody's got it a little more under control."

Lesbian's Children To Be Returned To UK

An Ontario judge has ruled that a woman who fled to Canada from the United Kingdom with her two adopted daughters must return with them to allow her former lesbian partner full access to the children under what amounts to a joint custody agreement.

Justice Jennifer Mackinnon, of Ontario Superior Court, ordered Connie Springfield to return to England with her two daughters, 8 and 6, whom she adopted with her long-time partner Sarah Courtney six years ago. Ms. Springfield had spirited the two children to Canada late last year in what the judge called a "long thought out, deceptive method of her removal of the children."

The lesbian couple had broken up five years earlier and had, apparently amicably, continued to share custody of the children until Ms. Springfield took them on what was supposed to be a visit to family members in Ottawa last December, but which she acknowledged planning for some time as a permanent move.

Parents Lose Custody of Girl For Naming Her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii

A nine-year-old girl whose parents named her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii was put into court guardianship in New Zealand so that her name could be changed.

A family court judge, Rob Murfitt, gave the order after hearing that the child was embarrassed about her name and had refused to reveal it to friends. "She told people her name was K because she feared being mocked and teased," the child's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.

The judge criticised parents who give their offspring bizarre names, saying it exposed children to ridicule among their peers.

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment that this child's parents have shown in choosing this name. It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily," he said.

Dad Sold Drugs to Win Child's Custody

A father who agreed to sell over €10,000 worth of cannabis to try and raise a deposit for a flat so that he could get custody of his daughter has been jailed.

Jude Sherlock (36) and his partner lived in their car for two months before Sherlock agreed to sell the drugs in the hope of getting a flat.

He appeared before Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

"It was not a long-term enterprise. He did it to get himself and his partner on stable ground," defence counsel Laurence Masterson told the court.

Spears, Federline Settle Custody Battle

Pop singer Britney Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline have settled their long and bitter custody battle over their two sons, but terms of the deal remained confidential.

Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told several media organisations late on Thursday that Federline retained sole custody of Sean Preston, two and a half, and Jayden James, 22 months, but outside a Los Angeles courthouse following a closed hearing on Friday, he declined to discuss custodial issues.

"I'm not going to comment on the terms of an agreement that has not yet been made an order of the court," Kaplan said.