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Episode 16

Guest – Nick Beaunan

This week on the Broken Fathers Podcast, I sat down with Nick Beaunan, a 50-year-old father from Tweed Heads who works in IT. Nick shared his challenging 16-month journey through family court as he fought for his two children.

Nick's story began with his parents' separation when he was young, leading to him being raised by his grandmother on the Sunshine Coast. Following in his parents' footsteps, both nurses, Nick began his career at Nambour Hospital at 18. Finding nursing unfulfilling and seeking adventure, he soon packed his bags and moved to Melbourne to join the Victorian Police. After completing 20 weeks at the police academy, Nick was posted to St Kilda, where he began his general duties career. He was later posted to Sunshine before becoming a detective and eventually retired as a Sergeant.

Nick, who was married for 15 years. Unfortunately, his marriage began to struggle when his ex-wife was diagnosed with mental health issues. This led Nick to feel like an unwanted carer. After leaving the Victorian Police, Nick started working as a security risk advisor in Papua New Guinea. It was during this time that his relationship began to dissolve. While he was working away, Nick's ex-wife made it very difficult for him to communicate with their children.

Upon returning home, a former police colleague informed Nick that his ex-wife was attempting to file an AVO against him. This colleague also mentioned that some police officers at the station had a personal vendetta against Nick, despite never having met him. Nick believes there's a lack of ”brotherhood” within the force and that ex-cops, much like veterans, are often perceived as aggressive.

Nick opens up about one time his ex was having an episode in a public place, and he didn’t want to give her the car keys concerned for her safety, but before he knew it 4 police officers were surrounding him with some idiot walking past calling him a woman basher.

This is where the parent alienation chapter starts like most fathers, he was slapped with an AVO over fabricated allegations and had to see the lids in supervised care. At one point he kissed his kids good but knowing he wasn’t going to see them for a while.

14 months later, at the family report writer interview which is a very synthetic environment. His kids arrived, but they had been brainwashed. During this time his ex-had been breaching court orders, and his ex-having BPD had manipulated the family report writer. At one point Nick receives a phone call from child safety which gobsmacks him. The judge, seeing through the bullshit, was more concerned as to why Nick wasn’t being allowed to see the kids.

In closing we address how the Police force is managing DV and how it's Impacting an individual that hasn’t done anything wrong. It seems it's Easier for them to take out an order than make a consideration around whether it’s prudent and are officers stepping in when they are not required. Nick looks back now and tells Family court is nothing but a waste of time and money.

Today, Nick is thriving. He’s remarried and is a personal trainer but more exciting he runs his own business running a lie detection test. Days of the polygraph are gone; his new device measures the cognitive load through your retina which captures 92% data.

This is a cracking episode you don’t want to miss.