Stephen Belafonte granted monitored visitation with Madison
Mel B’s estranged husband Stephen Belafonte has been granted monitored visitation rights with their daughter Madison.
The 41-year-old film producer recently filed for joint custody of his five-year-old child and visitation rights with 10-year-old Angel – whom Mel had with Eddie Murphy – amidst a nasty divorce battle with the former Spice Girl.
On Monday (04.24.17), a judge decided that Belafonte would be able to have two lots of four-hour visits with Madison per week, however, the times and dates will have to be agreed by the 41-year-old singer, E! News reports.
With regards to Angel, he has been denied a request for visitation without prejudice, though the judge may reconsider at a later date.
It was argued that the court does not "have the jurisdiction to grant visitation with the punitive step child", resulting in no alterations to the No Contact Clause, which means Belafonte will not be allowed to communicate with Angel whatsoever.
The ‘Say You’ll Be There’ hitmaker’s legal representatives, Susan Wiesner and Larry Bakman, attempted to have all visitation requests blocked on learning that Belafonte was allegedly involved in the making of pornography tapes at the former couple’s Los Angeles home, where it is claimed there is graphic content on the computers at the property which are used by the children.
Bakman told the courtroom: "The evidence will show that there are a large number of computers located within the possession of Mr Belafonte which show he is involved in running pornographic sites.
"Mr Belafonte is involved in leading various locations throughout the city. There are money trails."
However, it was ruled by the judge that they did not believe there was substantial evidence to completely ban visitation rights.
Mel had previously asked for sole legal and physical custody in her restraining order against Belafonte.
Stephen was ordered to stay away from Mel and her children after she claimed in court documents that he’d beat her, got their nanny pregnant and forced her to have threesomes during their 10-year marriage.
She alleged the abuse started within the first year of their marriage in 2007 and became a "pattern" for the then-couple with Stephen allegedly choosing to "beat her down to let her know he was in charge" whenever she saw a spike in her career.
Mel – who also has Phoenix, 18, with her first husband Jimmy Gulzar – had claimed she had previously tried to leave Stephen but he "threatened [her] with violence and threatened to destroy [her] life in every possible way … destroy [her] career and take [the] kids from [her]."
Stephen denied all the allegations against him.
