So in Gecko's shoes you may have remained dispassionate and never missed a legal trick to ensure you didn't vere from the straight and narrow path.
However, my way of looking at all this is very different.
Our children testifying against their parents (to the police) on a trivial matter such as this is an anathema to me.
They should be being told to show respect to their parents by those in authority, not "listened to and taken seriously" as our legal masters would have it.
They do not know what is best for anyone, and are only holding together a totally corrupted system by spewing out hokum.
Plea bargaining over these issues as Gecko was persuaded/forced to do is the opposite of justice IMHO.
She had some arrears to pay, was doing nothing to deny or try to avoid the authorities in order that some kind of reasonable settlement could have been made - no bringing in the police or jail for any of this, just take the matter up with the courts in a sensible way - that was the only justifiable action for Gecko's ex. and he should be being censored now for doing anything other than that (as equally your damn laws should be for allowing him any such opitions).
You are a defender of your laws so won't see it that way I'm sure.
Perhaps you have some legal answers for this poor woman in the UK who I met a few years ago. She is a nurse and someone who has suffered a facial disfigurement all her life, whose twenty year old son has ended up losing his own life;-
"i wonder if u can remember me ,i am sad to let u know that my son who was fighting to c his son has died, he had a fatal car crash, he was tormented and was buried the day b4 his access hearing, hope u r wel and i hope u r fighting the cause for fathers still, as i wish 2 continue on behalf of my son."
I will certainly be mentioning woman such as her to my Bishop when finish writing to him.
ATB, Graham