Supporting a friend

[sageadvisor]

Ok, so here's the situation:
A friend of mine has come through a messy divorce, he left her after some really strange antics on both their parts (neither party was innocent).
Their teenage child (15) lives with her.
The courts gave him the right to see the child.
She has turned to actively hating him (looking for ways to make his life a misery).
She encourages her family (sisters and mother) to hate him too.
She does EVERYTHING possible to keep their child from wanting to see him and his family (child's aunts and granny), including actively encouraging hate on the child's part.
I am convinced that the child will suffer psychological damage from the mother's efforts to undermine the father.
Over the last couple of years since the divorce started, the child has swung from never wanting to see the dad, to sometimes spending whole weekends with him (never with a sleep-over as they still live local to each other), and then back again as the mother finds a new way to turn on the hate.
The dad and the child love spending time with each other and have a lot in common, but the mother still does not want the child to see the dad.
The mother is a well educated woman, but is being blinded by her hate, so much so that she cannot see the damage she is doing to her own child just to perpetuate the hate against the dad.
The father is a friend of mine...

Any suggestions to try and talk sense into the mother?

[vintage47]

This is a 15yr old, not a child really. He/she is able to assess how they feel about each parent. The mother will surely loose out,if she continues in this way, and the father may find himself as the main carer in time. Aunts and Granny are the ones who should be supporting this teenager and ought to see him/her during this difficult time.

The father should go to court if he is unhappy with the arrangements.

If you have any sway you may wish to point this out to her but, you may loose her friendship and any chance of helping in the future. She needs counselling and so probably will the teenager.

[sageadvisor]

I have no sway or say with the mother.

The courts have been involved but the mother has powerful solicitors and the money to use them

The 15yr old will eventually have an opinion that is not necessarily the mother's, but until then the mother is able to sway things negatively, almost at will.

Access to Aunts and Granny on the Father's side has been denied since the start or proceedings a couple of years ago so their influence is nullified.

Sad situation on all fronts