Allen loses fight to see adopted daughter

Woody Allen may be enjoying rave reviews for his latest film, but his vitriolic break-up from the actress Mia Farrow has dealt him another blow as a New York judge denied him visitation rights to his 11-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan.

In his ruling, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Elliot Wilk also delivered a stinging rebuke of the film-maker for even asking for permission to see Dylan, who has been renamed Eliza by Miss Farrow. The judge barred Mr Allen from seeing Eliza, who has not seen her father for four years, saying her "therapeutic situation is still too fragile and unsettled". The girl, according to the therapist Dr Hector Bird, "remains adamant in her negative feelings towards Mr Allen".

The judge added that Mr Allen's continued attempts to gain access to Eliza "confirms that Mr Allen still has little understanding or empathy with respect to the emotional well-being of his children".

Never married, Allen and Farrow split up in January 1992 after the actress found nude pictures in Mr Allen's apartment of her older adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. It was later revealed that Mr Allen had had a sexual relationship with Soon-Yi. Judge Wilk did, however, grant Mr Allen the right to resume his one-hour weekly visits to Satchel, the biological son he had with Miss Farrow, now renamed Sean. Psychiatric experts told the judge, however, that the boy, who is nine, "hates" his father and suffers nightmares and stomach aches at the thought of seeing him.

The lacerations to Mr Allen's character stand in contrast to the generally gushing reaction of critics to his latest film Everyone Says I Love You. Mr Allen said, in an interview in New Yorker magazine this week, that he may make a film about his legal tribulations.

"The children's interests have not been served at all," he told the magazine. "Murderers, dope-addicts, people in prison - convicted people - are allowed to see their children."