About eight years ago Bruce Hutchinson came on holiday to the west of Ireland from his native Australia. He was 40 years old, and this was his first visit. While in Ireland he met Shelia, an Irishwoman in her early 20s, with whom he had a brief relationship. But after just three weeks Sheila told Bruce that she was pregnant with his child. She also said, according to Bruce: "All I've ever wanted for 10 years is a child. And now I'm pregnant, so you can f--off back to where you came from. I don't need you any more."

Bruce, however, opted to stay. He happened to believe that having a child was a serious business, that fatherhood was important, that his responsibilities to the situation transcended the whims of the other party.

But his announcement of this decision released a torrent of abuse from Sheila. She did not want him involved in any way in the unbringing of "her" child.

After seven years and more than a dozen court appearances, Bruce is still in Ireland, fighting for his son. He has had to pay Sheila considerable sums of money in maintenance, and yet has had to fight for every minute he has spent with his child. He has been prevented from seeing his son for long periods, once for more than a year.

He believes that Sheila and her family, who have been closely involved in her attempts to frustrate Bruce's efforts to rescue his child, have no regard for the physical, mental or emotional well-being of his son. On one occasion he discovered that, at two years old, the child was being exposed to pornography, a fact backed by witness evidence.

Bruce's complaints were ignored by the officials of the State. His son, at seven years old, has become the product of his environment: an angry, selfish, spiteful child, who constantly uses four-letter words and talks about oral sex. It is not surprising that his son is now officially described as disturbed.

Bruce has spent much of the last seven years writing reports for, and meeting, officials from the Probation Service, the Department of Social Welfare, Community Care and the Garda. Although the extent of Sheila's invention was established by Garda investigations, the State has refused to act on Bruce's behalf; partly, he believes, because he is a man, and partly because he is a foreigner.

Last year Bruce was awarded custody of his son, but the courts and the police have refused to enforce this order. By simply putting forward unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse against Bruce, Sheila was able to have his access reduced to two hours' supervised access per week.

Bruce now lives in a caravan, banished from the society of the child he stayed here to protect, and prevented from earning a living, and rendered ineligible for social welfare by the laws of the State of which his son is a citizen.

"My motivation," says Bruce, "was that my beautiful son was in the care of this evil woman and her family and I feared for his welfare and his sanity. Perhaps if I had been an Irishman I would have known the futility of such a stance. I was of the opinion that Irish people were decent and considerate. Little did I suspect this evil lurking beneath the surface of an otherwise acceptable society."