Visitation Rights and Allegations of Sexual Abuse

The court addressed the difficult issue of personal visitation rights under Article 273 of the Civil Code when the visiting parent is accused of sexually abusing the children during visitation, noting that such allegations require critical evaluation of the children's statements due to potential suggestibility, a high risk of error in testimony concerning sexual offenses, and the influence of the familial conflict, especially when the custodial parent may be motivated by fear of losing the children or acting out of overprotection, emphasizing that the custodial parent has a duty to foster the child's contact with the other parent.