A lot of his story doesn't make sense. I'm not sure why he "let" his fiance and daughter enter the UK without him to begin with. If the plan was for them all to live together in the UK for a few weeks, wouldn't it make sense that they would have gone back to their Texan "home" together? If the plan was for the fiance and daughter to stay for awhile (presumeably to visit with family) then why did they have to plan to meet up in Germany as opposed to them just returning to the US? Based on that (which admittedly would not be the whole story), it sounds like the court ruling was correct.
I think this guy is in denial and possibly getting bad advice about not pushing the UK courts for visitation. How much more time is he going to waste (he's already not seen her for 9 months) trying to overturn the original ruling? What court would now rule that the young child needs to be given to the father who hasn't even seen her in almost an entire year? At some point you've got to face the music and try to make the most of the situation you've got. I'd rather see my child as much as possible and not live with them then to go a year without seeing them at all.
These type of cases always suck and I do think the advice about considering these things when you enter an international relationship is good. No one wants to think about divorce and child custody cases (but just like death, they are things that can crop up unexpectedly and ruin the "perfect" family you think you've got) but it is best to at least consider all possible scenerios and how they would be handled.
