I think the presence of lawyer's letters to Alice shows he is actively trying to resolve the situation to get partial or full custody of the girls. It isn't like he he washed his hands of them.
People always talk about how fathers or other relatives don't take matters into their own hands, but what would that mean practically? He can't go to the house, near Alice. Not safe. He wants to go with a third party and she's said she won't allow it. Imagine the scene and what damage it would to the girls for him to show up and how Alice would react. He can't physically take them away, they're eight and twelve, they no doubt wouldn't go willingly due to the amount of crap Alice has put in their heads. He isn't going to show up and remove them with force.
It's an absolute nightmare for them but I personally believe he's trying to do everything by the book to ensure custody gets sorted asap. In the meantime is he supposed to stay in his house so nobody sees him? Why isn't he allowed to walk outside or see friends? Should be abstain from parties (important for networking) until he gets custody sorted? What would that achieve? It takes time to sort out custody arrangements when one parent is actively withholding the children from the other parent. She has him over a barrel.
Sorry, I just find it frustrating when people can't see how things would work in reality. Alice wants the narrative to be that he hasn't bothered with them, while tweeting in the next moment that there's no way she'd allow the girls to go spend time with him. She says things like 'he hasn't seen his kids since May' while conveniently not mentioning that she won't allow it.
It reminds me of some comments I saw on a facebook post about a child who was abused and killed in the UK. Relatives had reported concerns to social services who investigated and didn't see any evidence of harm, which is truly heartbreaking. People commented saying 'if it was my niece/nephew I'd have been over there and saved them/taken them to safety, where were the family? How can they live with themselves?'
Aunts/Uncles/Grandparents have no legal right to remove a child from their parents, you can't simply show up at someone's home and take the child, that'd be kidnapping. There's nothing you can do other than refer to the authorities to step in, who actually have the legal ability to step in and act. Trying to show up and remove a child would have you arrested for kidnapping. The commenter made out like family just didn't care enough when in fact they made reports to the police and social services, which is all you CAN do in that situation.
Ioan has parental responsibility for the girls just like Alice but when they live with her, are refusing to go to him, she won't facilitate handover without him going to the house (and even then I don't think she'd allow it) which isn't a safe environment for him and would cause distressing scenes for the girls. What more can be do but resort to legal recourse and wait for a judge to mandate shared custody so he has the law on his side?
So much of what Alice has said has shown that Ioan was very likely to have been the victim of abuse. It's appalling to call him a coward, imo. She's also shared plenty of evidence that he's a loving, involved, caring father. I have no doubt he's doing everything he can to get custody of the girls in a safe and legal way, but he has a real job on his hands considering the bile Alice has been filling their heads with, and the fact that she wouldn't allow him his time with the girls over Facetime without interfering, leaning in, trying to involve herself. I didn't know who either of them were prior to this saga but from everything I've seen it really breaks my heart what the kids and him are going through.
