Episode 25 - Joshua & Emily Thompson - I haven't seen my son since 2021

Episode 25

Guest - Joshua and Emily Thompson

On this episode I am joined with a married couple. Josh, a 35 y/o from Sydney who is a director of a small construction company and his wife Emily who is 29 and works in child protection as a case worker and is also studying to be a lawyer. They share 1 beautiful child and 2 stepchildren together while Josh has 1 child to his x wife. Josh and Emily started their family court journey in 2020 and just finished in the start of 2025.
 
Emily, one of 13 siblings born and raised in Wollongong experienced a traumatic childhood; her parents separated when she was two, and her father struggled with heavy alcohol and drug use. Her lived experience with siblings who faced meth addiction from a young age is what ultimately led her to work in the child protection space. 

Josh met his ex at the age of 22 who was a on and off hairdresser, they were friends to start with dating then become official. Seven years later they got married, only to split one year later. Josh, reflecting now, sees the biggest red flag was when she moved in only months after they met., As soon as they ended the relationship, the first thing his ex-asked was how much money was she going to get. Josh went to work one day, came home and the whole house had been cleaned out empty.
 
Josh worked not far from his in-law’s place and was getting access to his son. The split was quite amicable to begin with, until he noticed he stopped getting in voted at the in-law BBQ every Sunday. This was when he found out she had a new boyfriend.

Josh then met his current wife in December 2020, when Joshua’s ex found out all hell broke out. Josh's neighbour would film him and take pictures when Emily was there then report it straight back to his ex.
 
An interesting point to note is that a former acquaintance of Josh’s ex used to monitor Josh’s social media via a fake account to report back to her. This individual is no longer in contact with the ex-partner and has since become close friends with Josh and Emily. Additionally, while the initial mediation went good, Josh’s ex reportedly misrepresented the outcome to others, claiming it went poorly, consent orders were made with which we ultimately withdrawn, just before the court sealed them. 
 
On December 3rd, the situation escalated when Josh was raided and accused of armed robbery. He was subsequently refused bail. This decision was unexpected, particularly as Josh requires chemotherapy every six months. Even corrective services submitted documentation stating they could not meet his medical requirements and supported his release from custody.

While incarcerated, Josh’s health deteriorated significantly, requiring specialized treatment every four weeks. Following his release on December 16, 2021, his immediate priority was contacting his son. Although Josh had been writing letters to him while inside, his ex-partner attempted to characterize this correspondence as domestic violence.

All charges against Josh were dropped, no record was made, and the police identified the actual offender. Following this, the judge’s verdict was read by Emily.
 
Despite spending nearly $500,000, the case then moved to family court. At this stage, his ex-partner employed various tactics, including forcing Josh to undergo hair follicle tests and subpoenaing numerous organizations. She also attempted to use his medical conditions against him and submitted affidavits that contained clear falsehoods, particularly regarding her financial documents. To this day, Josh has not seen his son since December 16, 2021 which was via FaceTime, and hasn’t physically seen him since November 28, 2020.
 
In closing, I asked Emil