A prominent lawyer and his former partner are engaged in nasty High Court litigation after the lawyer obtained an interim court order last month restricting the mother’s access to their two minor children to two hours a day, reports the Sunday Times.

Both have accused each other of physical abuse in the court papers.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) granted a provisional order on 28 June in terms of which the lawyer was awarded primary residence of the children, with the mother allowed only supervised contact with them for two hours a day.

The order prohibits the mother from leaving the country with the children.

A forensic psychologist is appointed to investigate issues of 'primary residence, contact and care of the minor children and to file a report that contains her recommendations'.

The court battle came after the mother had taken the two minor children to Durban without informing the lawyer, allegedly in breach of a contact schedule agreed to between the parties and their legal representatives.

Full Sunday Times report