A mother has failed to stop her ex-husband from seeing his three year old daughter.
The couple married in October 2009 and their daughter, identified as ‘R’ in the judgment, was born three years later. However, the marriage began to deteriorate and they finally separated in early 2014. Since then, the father has not seen his daughter.
Following an application to the Family Court in Brighton, an order was made which allowed supervised contact between the father and R once a week. The mother objected to this decision. She believed that due to the father’s behaviour during the marriage, he should not be given any direct contact with R at all.
In her application to the Court of Appeal, the mother cited a finding of fact which said that the father had sexually assaulted her throughout the marriage and during an attempt to reconcile. She argued that the initial judge had not given adequate weight to those findings before making the order in the father’s favour.
However, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice McFarlane noted that the original order does not require “any direct communication between the parents and thus there is no potential for the father to exert any controlling or coercive behaviour towards the mother”.
Additionally, the judge said that the finding of fact did not “establish that the father presents as any sexual or physical risk to R”. He therefore dismissed the mother’s appeal.
To read A (A Child), click here.
Well declared by the Court on this occasion.
And any of you who read this blog don’t forget to sign the Pilgrims Father petition (Families Need Fathets) for the rights of children to live their lives with all in their families..which is an assumption currently but many in my Samaritan surgeries consider a moral and legal right!
Well said Nigel – seconded and signed.
Dr James F
London