Bob Geldof gibt Familiengerichten Schuld am Leiden seiner Töchter

Bob Geldof blames Britain’s family courts for the emotional pain endured by his daughter Peaches, who died of a heroin overdose in April, and Fifi, who has recently revealed her battle with depression and alcohol abuse.

The singer said that the courts made it impossible for him to take care of his children after he parted from their mother, Paula Yates, in 1995. Successive judges ruled that their mother was best placed to take care of them.

Geldof, 63, was speaking to Saga Magazine about how he has managed to cope with Peaches’ death and Fifi’s decision to go public with her mental battles.

"Peaches I don’t really want to talk about as it’s too raw, but I will say that I blame the entire family court system for so much of their subsequent pain," he said.

He said he was "ruined" when Yates left him, taking the children with her, yet in the eyes of the law that was perfectly permissible. In the beginning he was only allowed to see them once a fortnight.

"All I wanted was to see my kids 50 per cent of the time. I wouldn’t have had children if I didn’t want the privilege of bringing them up and I wanted to keep my kids away from this decadent world Paula had fallen into. The courts, of course, prevented that as much as possible and I got them every two weeks, having been with them every day since they were born. If I’d walked out with the kids, I would have been arrested for kidnap, but if a woman walks out with the kids the father is allowed to see them only every other weekend. It’s state-sanctioned kidnapping."

Die Londoner Times berichtet.