Courts will lean toward giving custody to a parent that can give a child daily care rather than another parent that may be obliged to leave the child with a stranger for extended periods of time. Thou shalt disregard the preference of a child under the age of nine in deciding custody. The wishes of a 10-13 year old child is important but not necessarily persuasive. The older a child gets, the more relevant is the child's preference. Thou shalt take note of the powers that courts have to order independent professional assessment before deciding custody but the court will not be bound by such reports.
Access is different from custody.
Access and child support are two different things. A court will not reduce access just because there has been failure to pay child support. The custodial parent cannot unilaterally deny or reduce access rights because there has been an interruption in child support payments. Nor can a parent with access rights reduce child support payments because of difficulties encountered in exercising those rights. If thou art the custodial parent, it is thou responsibility to ensure that access and visitation rights are honoured.