A father has won full custody of his children after a video went viral showing his 9-year-old daughter screaming and accusing her mother's fiancé of sexually abusing her while her mother was watching. The girl, Sophie, can be seen shouting in the video and making the accusations as she is dragged from her father's car by her grandmother (her mother's mother).
The video was so shocking that it sparked the #StandWithSophie movement that went viral on social media.
A judge ruled, in light of the video and other evidence, that Michael Long should have full custody of all three of his children, Sophie and her two brothers. Michael and his wife spoke of the heartbreak they have experienced knowing what Sophie has suffered and how they could do almost nothing about it. They have also been left facing a huge financial burden due to the legal battle. Kourtney Chalmers, Michael's wife, set up a gofundme page to raise money for Sophie's battle.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, Kourtney said:
"It's really, really hard. There's a lot of guilt – you try to think if there was a sign you could have seen sooner if they were trying to tell you in some other way. It felt just awful [to hear what she said] and you feel disgusted all the time, especially with everybody telling you right and left that it shouldn't be this hard to remove a child from an abusive situation. I just don't understand why everybody just keeps throwing them back to the wolves.
Michael added:
"It's one of those helpless things – as a parent, you do everything you can do to make sure your child gets the help she needs. I knew the only way to protect Sophie was to record everything. While nobody wants to be under scrutiny in that way and I certainly don't want my daughter to be under public scrutiny for something so sensitive, I thought I'd let her speak up for herself rather than be put in this situation again and again."
Dear @realDonaldTrump, As a Father to a Daughter, I’m sure you can appreciate my dilemma. I need your help Sir. Will you help me #standwithsophie? #savethechildren pic.twitter.com/gcax4tsRbO
— Michael Long (@standwithsophie) September 9, 2020
Kourtney also spoke of the long-term impact on Sophie and how the abuse inflicted upon her has come to change her personality and outlook. She said:
"Sophie has always been full of magic, bubbly and just really carefree. There is a big difference now. She used to feel good about herself all the time and now she feels not beautiful and that's really hard to see. In private, she talks so badly about herself now because she's a beautiful young lady and they've made her feel ugly. I don't know if it's all the things they say to her or things that have been done to her that have made it hard for her to feel comfortable in her own skin. But a lot of that sparkle, the carefree innocence… you can see it fade from her eyes."
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