Can Cannons’ adoptive father reunite with children?
Of interest is that Anke Doehm’s former husband, David Cannon, is presently in Belize seeking full custody of the three children. Cannon arrived in country shortly after receiving news of Faye Lin’s demise and has sought the legal services of attorney Robertha Magnus Usher. While in Belize however, Cannon will have to receive permission from the Department of Human Services in order to visit with his children and he has to be screened thoroughly before being granted access to them. According to Arthurs, visitation is dealt with on a case by case basis.
Leanne Arthurs, Director, Department of Human Services
Leanne Arthurs
“It all depends on the case. If the course of the investigation has suggested harm to the children and we are not able to determine who has caused that harm, we may have a temporary ban in terms of visitation to any persons who are a possible suspect, in terms of the child abuse investigation. But if in the course of our investigation and assessments we determine that a particular member of the family that is requesting is not an immediate risk to the child then we may facilitate visits, whether it be supervised or otherwise.”
Isani Cayetano
“My final question goes back to the children remaining in the custody of the DHS. If there is any pending legal matter or a criminal investigation for that matter, is there a specific timeline that the DHS is operating, in terms of having these children in its care?”
Leanne Arthurs
“The determinant of children in our care is based on our accountability to the family court, and so the law allows us to apply for what’s called either an interim care order or a care order, or a full custody for a child. An interim care order is for a maximum period of three months, thereafter we have to submit what’s called a social inquiry report to the court, detailing our investigation and a recommendation forward on the case. At that time the magistrate may grant our order or may not grant our order. If the order is granted we then make a determination as to what are the interventions that we have to do with the family, the course of the investigation. At the expiry of the three-month period, and we have submitted that social inquiry report, we make a recommendation if we want a further order or we want to reunify the child and we have no order or what we call a supervision order, that we will reunify under supervision of the court.”
