If that were the case, once he was released he’d be able to re-assert his parental rights and sue for custody or visitation rights or whatever. What his ex-wife wants is immaterial, if the court orders he be granted visitation, she must comply. Courts are generally loathe to withhold visitation, unless circumstances warrant otherwise.
Dude, that’s sixteen years from now. The kid will probably be in his twenties by the time his dad gets out. I don’t think a court can give him custody of a college student.
If the kid is of age when he gets out, what would stop the guy from locating Son, calling and saying, “This is your dad…”? That’s really what I was getting at. Never seeing him while Dad is in prison I can understand. Never seeing him again ever made me wonder if the kid was terminally ill and would not be around 16 years from now. I think, if my dad was in prison for 16 years, I’d want to have contact with him eventually, if only for the sake of closure. Unless I already knew what he did, and it was my own decision to have nothing to do with him.
Nothing. But then, even if he was arrested for kiddy diddling, there’s nothing stopping him from calling his (adult) son in 16 years and saying “Hi,” either. I don’t think we can take that comment as indicative of what sort of crime he was convicted of, is my point.
Possible explanations for what he meant:
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He doesn’t expect his kid (possibly due to influence of his mom) to want to ever meet him again.
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He doesn’t expect (or plan) to live long enough to serve out his term.
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He won’t ever see his kid as a kid again, and is going to be missing out on his entire childhood.
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He’s just really, really upset about spending sixteen years in prison, and wasn’t really thinking about what he was saying.