According to TMZ, Mel B has made a major change to her Divorce Application, namely, she decided that she does not want to share joint custody of the children with Stephen Belafonte. Mel B attributes her decision to two reasons. The first is that Stephen was allegedly convicted for domestic violence against his former girlfriend. The second reason is that Stephen’s conviction prohibited him to possess a gun.
When Mel B found out about the domestic violence, she sought a temporary restraining order which prohibits Belafonte from having any contact with her three children. Nevertheless, Mel is apparently willing to allow Belafonte to have supervised access to the couple’s 5-year-old child, Madison.
In Ontario, supervised access is generally ordered or agreed to if the access parent has a history of violence, abuse, and a drug or alcohol problem or if he or she threatened to abduct the child.
The location of the supervised access can vary. For instance, supervised access may take place at a parent’s home or even in a supervised access center. Supervised access centers provide a setting in which visits and exchanges can take place under the supervision of trained staff or volunteers.
Parent’s also have the option of hiring a supervised access worker who can facilitate access exchanges between the parties. Supervised access workers provide a sense of comfort for parent’s to know that someone else is there watching and supervising the child in the presence of the other parent. More importantly, however, a supervised access worker allows both parents to spend meaningful time with the child either in a public setting or at home.
Although supervised access is not a long term solution, it can be a helpful means of facilitating access to the child during the transitionary period of separation. If Mel B is uncomfortable with Belafonte having access to the couple’s 5-year-old, Madison, perhaps a supervised access worker is a viable option to ensure that both parents are able to spend time with Madison.