Heartbroken parents place toys outside court in support of parental alienation campaign
Heartbroken parents placed toys outside Portsmouth Combined Court Centre as they backed a parental alienation campaign.
Portsmouth has become the focal point of a powerful national awareness campaign as People Against Parental Alienation (PAPA) brought its “Lost Years” Campaign to the city on Saturday.
The striking visual tribute of toys served to highlight the devastating impact of family court delays and parental alienation on children and parents across the UK.
Hundreds of children’s toys have been placed by heartbroken parents and family members at locations across the country. Each toy represents a childhood moment lost — missed birthdays, empty Christmas mornings, and years of separation caused by prolonged legal battles and obstructed contact.
The installation formed a powerful and emotional centrepiece to the campaign, symbolising what organisers describe as the “lost years” of childhood and parenthood that can never be returned.
The campaign was started by PAPA founder and Pompey native Simon Cobb, who has been campaigning nationally for family court reform and greater recognition of parental alienation.
“Every toy placed here represents a moment that should have existed — a birthday hug, a bedtime story, a first day at school shared with both parents,” said Mr Cobb. “These are not just lost days. They are lost childhoods.”
He continued: “Over 100,000 of children in England and Wales are currently caught in a family court system where cases can take many months or even years to resolve. During that time, contact between a child and one parent can break down completely. For many families, the consequences are irreversible.
“Children grow older while disputes remain unresolved. Relationships weaken or disappear entirely. Parents miss milestones that will never return.
“Justice delayed for parents is a childhood denied for children. Time moves forward no matter what the courts do. When the system fails to act quickly or enforce its own decisions, it is children who lose the most precious years of their lives.”
PAPA’s Lost Years Campaign is calling for urgent reforms to ensure children do not lose irreplaceable time with a parent due to delays or failures within the family justice system.
Key proposals include faster family court processes to prevent long delays in resolving disputes. Stronger enforcement of court orders when contact arrangements are breached has also been called for alongside meaningful deterrents and consequences for repeated violations of parenting arrangements.
A principle of “reimbursement of time”, allowing alienated parents additional time with their children to make up for lost contact has been put forward.
Campaigners say these changes are necessary to prevent children from losing the formative years of their lives while legal disputes drag on. “The rows of toys placed during the Portsmouth demonstration served as a stark reminder of the children at the centre of these disputes,” Mr Cobb said.
“Each toy symbolised a child whose relationship with a parent has been disrupted or lost — sometimes for years. For many parents who participated, placing a toy was an act of remembrance as well as protest.
“The campaign’s haunting message — ‘Tears wash away lost years’ — reflects both the grief of families separated by alienation and the determination to bring national attention to the issue.
For Mr Cobb, the campaign’s message is ultimately about protecting children from the consequences of a system that moves too slowly.
“We cannot give back the years that have already been lost,” he said. “But we can make sure fewer children lose their childhoods in the future. That is why this campaign matters.”