You too can be a Family Court Expert Psychologist — no qualifications required!
Today marked a landmark test case ending in the High Court, presided over by President Sir Andrew Mcfarlane and heard remotely in an unusual Open court. The permission for members of the public to listen in was granted previously on October 26th, however criticism has persisted of both journalists that have reported on the case, despite their impartial accuracy. Only about 30 public attendees took interest in such a deeply troubling case and here is why. Further to this the applications were self-branded by Melanie Gill’s counsel, Andrew Bagchi KC, as a ‘witch-hunt’ against his client, he went on to insult her victims by referring to them as disgruntled and relentlessly upset activists. The Family Justice system has been deliberately keeping this a horrible secret for many years, the victims just had enough. This isn’t the first time Miss Gill has been under heated scrutiny and it almost certainly will not be the last. As far back as 2015, award winning journalist Brian Farmer reported on Miss Gill’s very questionable and highly irregular ‘expertise’ and more importantly the grandiose and disturbing diagnosis’ she makes and the recommendations impacting children and their parents in Family Courts all over the UK and beyond.
In 2015, Miss Gill had no other recognised or accredited psychological qualifications apart from her undergraduate degree from 1980, the graduation roll shows she came bottom of her graduating year class, as one of just 2 people who only managed to get a 3rd class degree. She cannot be regulated by the HCPC (the regulators for all psychological professions) nor was she a graduate or registered member of the British Psychological Society. The reason she was not is because their standards are clear, a minimum 2:2 degree is required, along with an accredited Masters degree in psychology and then either 2+ years clinical supervision or an accredited PhD. Melanie Gill had none of these things. Yet Cafcass in Medway, Kent, decided that this completely unknown person, calling themselves a psychologist, who has never published any research, individually or peer reviewed, has never been employed by anyone, anywhere as a psychologist, has never practiced as a psychologist and never treated any patient in any type of therapeutic setting or clinic, was an expert; expert enough to make strict recommendations to remove a child from his only parent and put him into permanent care, based entirely upon her psychologically diagnostic report and assessment.
The Legal Aid Agency confirmed that Melanie Gill had been approved to be paid the full rate of regulated psychologists, as she is on their list as a Child Psychologist. There is no such protected title regulating Child Psychologists, confirmed by Dr Jaime Craig of the Expert Witness Family Justice Council committee on behalf of the British Psychological Society. There is no transparent answer how or why Miss Gill is/was on the approved and regulated list with the Legal Aid Agency. Had she provided false or misleading documents, such as a CV containing a protected title, or alluded to being regulated when in fact she wasn’t? This would certainly constitute defrauding a public office, and or a substantial amount of money too, over a prolonged period. Each assessment costs around £10,000 and then her recommendations with her own businesses provide for further costs awarded to her for ongoing interventions and therapeutic work she oversees, closely working with Raphael Lopez De Soto, as confirmed in both their linked in profiles.
Dr Jaime Craig appeared today alongside Barbara Mills KC representing the Association of Clinical Psychologists, (the ACP), whose chair is Emeritus Professor Mike Wang — acting as a welcomed intervener for all the subsequent parents severed from their children following equally horrifying assessment reports made by Melanie Gill. Professor Wang has clarified in numerous other private cases that Miss Gill, according to her CV, has no substantive post graduate qualifications, should not be acting as an expert witness nor calling herself a Psychologist. President McFarlane dismissed Professor Wang and the ACP’s involvement as over-stepping their role and implied they had no weight to be considered in such proceedings. Had todays hearing being broadcast and televised, I am of the strong and certain opinion the general public would be scratching their heads and seriously outraged at such a suggestion, questioning the integrity of the President of the Family Division substantially and his role as Master of impartial justice.
Before todays hearing I had discussed this case considerably with a lot of different people, some litigant parents, many expert psychologists, barristers, solicitors and numerous journalists. I had done so to get feedback and thoughts on what I felt was a certain outcome of today — that McFarlane would not and could not make any other decision that undermined himself. There are numerous published public judgements that mention and refer to Melanie Gill by a variety of protected titles she is not permitted to use meaning in each case that Judge and each professional is guilty of not conducting due diligence and aiding and abetting fraud – not to mention harm to every child involved. The HCPC investigated for 14 months for her using these protected titles in February 2020 and found she was in breach of the Health Care Act by doing so, a prosecutable criminal offence. They decided in that instance not to prosecute her, it then being her first reported complaint. It is important to make clear, the HCPC only monitor and enforce standards and practices of regulated members. The HCPC went on to admit this year it simply does not have the funding to prosecute the likes of Miss Gill but their letter in this case to the court today made clear the had serious concerns about the issues raised. I suspect without Parliamentary intervention it would be difficult as the title of Psychologist on its own is not protected, regulated nor illegal to pass-yourself off as. Anyone at all can call themselves a psychologist, in any type of profession or expertise, with any kind of self-styled title as a niche specialist. If anyone wanted to call themselves a “specialist family attachment consultant forensic psychologist”, they can. And she did. And it would appear no one cares within the Family Courts of the extreme danger and damage that poses to the public or anyone who comes into contact with such a person. They can make extreme diagnosis, recommendations and permanent life-damaging alterations to children and parents.
McFarlane rather strangely stated there was no definition of an expert, nor what qualifications they needed, nor that they must be regulated or registered at all. This is very far from what was said at the Family Justice Council Annual Conference on Expert Witnesses which he presided over and co-hosted just 6 weeks ago. Why the U-turn and contradiction now? How will this play out — why is the president of the Family Court suggesting that their public conference decrying the use of ANY unregulated experts was dangerous; and yet now false? Family Practice Directions and BPS/Family Justice Council guidance strongly says otherwise. To all attendees today it sounded exactly like McFarlane was completely contradicting his own guidance and the practice directions everyone else is supposed to follow in order to lie to the public. The extent of the severe harm and damage that Melanie Gill is responsible for and been negligently permitted to continue for years and years would crumble the Family Courts with scandal.
McFarlane has co-hosted discussions and panel meetings with the woman, he’s been photographed at the same conferences with her, they both have significant ties to the dangerous US organisation the AFCC. McFarlane has come unstuck and the truth has caught up to the corruption of nepotism.
Every Judge, every barrister, every court, every solicitor, every CAFCASS officer and every Local Authority that have used, relied upon and paid for Melanie Gill’s assessments and reports would all become guilty and negligent by association if McFarlane made any other judgement. I remind myself of a very famous quote I constantly dwell upon;
“Just because something Is, does not mean it should Be”
Just because Melanie Gill has gotten away with being a ‘psychologist’ by faking and fooling everyone, flying under the radar and misleading the courts, does not mean she should not be flushed out when revealed and exposed. Permitting something to continue just because the repercussions of admitting wrong-doing are too dire to think about, is not good enough reason to cover-up the wrong-doing and try and hide the deception or even potential fraud.
We should remind ourselves of Gene Morrison — A fake psychologists who fooled the courts for 27 years.
Most real Psychologists study and gain the qualifications to practice and those who do treat or assess people are regulated to work in the profession of their choice, to provide healthy and ethical treatment to patients, produce positive interventions in peoples lives or go into research and Academia. They study for years, at least 6 or 7. They pay for professional indemnity insurance — a requirement Miss Gill has refused to produce any evidence of to confirm she holds it, despite it being a Practice Direction requirement of law and ordered in this cases disclosure. They have dedicated supervision, oversight and mentorship, they challenge their own biases and they strive to have ethical and impactful delivery of a high standard of work. Melanie Gill does none of these things. It begs the question what is the point of regulation or regulators at all if anyone can be a psychologist, an expert and make any diagnosis of anyone they please? Why bother with a Masters degree or a Doctorate, why become regulated at all? Why conform to any ethical standards if the Family Court do not require or even believe there are any definitions of expert requirements? Miss Gill’s counsel, Andrew Bagchi KC put forward a most illuminating defence for Miss Gill,
“Miss Gill only makes observational diagnosis, not clinical diagnosis”
Knowing the severity of the diagnosis she ‘observationally’ makes including Stockholm Syndrome, Severe Personality Disorders, Bi-Polar disorders, Depression, PTSD, Anxiety and Attachment disorders and seemingly anything else she may have watched a YouTube video about — Miss Gill is making substantive, significant and life-altering diagnosis. She has never opined them as ‘observational’ at all. She argues fiercely that she can and will make diagnosis, and in her reports she states they are 100% accurate! An accuracy of such certainty in itself proves the absurd in any scientific field. Concerns of such a persons irregularity should not be dismissed or brushed off as merely disgruntled parents. These are not disgruntled parents. These are maimed parents, maimed families and maimed children. If this was a person amputating the wrong limb and later being found to have no medical degree or license there would be outcry. Taking a persons children is arguably worse than losing a limb. I can assure any reader I would give up any limb or all of them to be allowed to see my children ever again, even if I had to amputate them myself with a rusty spoon!
What Melanie Gill is doing is inhumane as well as medically and psychologically irreprehensible. Many have argued that it is no different to the regulated psychologists making Parental Alienation diagnosis and removing children. Sadly that is wrong, Melanie Gill is not making Parental Alienation diagnosis at all — she is making psychological and psychiatric diagnosis that ruin lives forever. Unlike the woolly and unscientific diagnosis of Parental Alienation, personality disorders are not disputed, bi-polar disorders, psychological disorders listed in the DMS-V are what she is diagnosing and using to beat parents (almost exclusively mothers) with. No right-minded person would allow a person without any recognised qualification to diagnose them with a personality disorder that renders them a completely incompetent parent. There is strong research to say even if parents with personality disorders are diagnosed, officially, they can still be very good parents. So why is the court dismissing the criticism made of a totally unqualified person doing this, repeatedly, at great expense, defrauding public purses, and faking a living?
What code of conduct does Melanie Gill operate under? She has none. Barbara Mills KC repeatedly and rightly said that Melanie Gill has used The Academy of Experts as a shield. That word is accurate. It has misled and disguised her lack of expertise and regulation, fudging her way through with the aplomb of a good forger. Let me draw the comparison with Art — If we find an good copy of a work of art being sold as an original , is the person responsible a fraud or an artist? That seems to have been the question drawn today and answered by the court that despite the ‘narrative’ CV of lies, that there are no qualifications of substance, no accreditations of worth, no regulation, no standards, no recognising training; that Melanie Gill has become an expert by default of the fact that too many hood-winked Judges, social workers, Local Authorities and Cafcass officers have stupidly permitted her presence in court rooms and now they simply cannot row back from their mistake. The dye has been cast and the damage has been done and the damage is so extensive and so deep and gone on so long, even the Family Court must now inadvertently become complicit in its huge cover-up. Like in any great national scandal, where huge injustices and criminalities occur, there are long and grief-stricken periods where the victims are left out in the cold, only when the perpetrators die or generations and enough time passes are faults nationally admitted. I believe that this will be one of them. Victims of Melanie Gill will be acknowledged only when she dies or there is a reported death as a result of her forged career as a fake expert harming children and victims of domestic abuse.
I will write up the full hearing tomorrow, tonight, I like so many others, will grieve their lost children and the injustice and cover-up that enshrouds the Family Court and Keighley Gill Consulting Limited. Hundreds of children have been taken, many lives forever altered and thousands of duped and mislead professionals ensnared in the trap of a gifted and deceptive psychopath con-artist.
