I think I had better point out you’re being ironic, and that I know you. Otherwise you’re going to get a stream of comments from people telling you where to put it.

Leontieva has been portrayed as an unfit parent because of the court ruling in favour of the father. But the crucial point is she never got to put her case forward at all.

Busuttil’s lawyers’ behaviour is beyond shocking. At least one of them is a parent himself. Now that he has made himself part of this dirty public spectacle, perhaps he should explain whether he would behave the same way towards his own wife.

That is obviously not the case. With the mother in the picture and still living with him, there would have been no custody issues, and he certainly wouldn’t have had a custody order.

He filed for sole custody AFTER she left him and ‘vanished’ in Prague. The papers of service (from the Courts) were supposedly received, but she was not in Malta and he had no idea where she was, so she couldn’t possibly have received them. Somebody else must have signed for their receipt and the Courts duly considered her served with the papers even though she wasn’t.

She couldn’t respond in Court because she wasn’t in Malta and hadn’t been served with the documents.

Many people don’t know that court documents of this nature do not have to be received by the individual to whom they apply, but can be signed for by anybody who opens the door at that address. I once lost an appeal because the notification of the hearing-date went to the offices of The Malta Independent and the receptionist (not the current one) signed for them and then somebody else spirited them away.

Maybe Busuttil and Cardona share Russian girlfriends and that’s why they’ve both been given the sack by the mothers of their children recently. Who knows?