A v D
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr. Justice Roderic Wood |
| Judgment Date | 01 August 2013 |
| Neutral Citation | [2013] EWHC 2963 (Fam) |
| Date | 01 August 2013 |
| Court | Family Division |
| Docket Number | Case No. FD13P00519 |
[2013] EWHC 2963 (Fam)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Mr. Justice Roderic Wood (In private)
Case No. FD13P00519
Mr. H. Khan (instructed by Dawson Cornwell) appeared on behalf of the Applicant.
THE RESPONDENT did not appear and was not represented.
Mr. J. Ford (of CAFCASS Legal) appeared on behalf of the Guardian.
(Approved)
THE APPLICATIONS
The mother of A, a boy born on 13 th January 2009 and therefore four years and seven months of age, seeks by applications dated 13 th March 2013:
(i) a residence order pursuant to the provisions of section 8 of the Children Act 1898 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act")
(ii) an order permitting her to change both the forenames and family name of A; and
(iii) an order revoking A's father's parental responsibility.
A's father does not oppose these applications. He was directed to attend the hearing before Mrs. Justice Theis on 6 th June this year, and declined to do so. He sent an email and a fax to the court. Her order read as follows:
(i) "After receiving the application for a residence order, name change, and to remove responsibility for my son [whom he then names] I am writing to advise that I will not be attending court or objecting to the requests by the mother. Although I do not agree or believe to be true a lot of the statements that have been included in a number of the reports, I am unable to find a family solicitor that can represent me, as legal aid is not available in these type of cases (sic) so, due to my circumstances, I will not be attending court at this time".
And:
(ii) "I wish to waive my right to attending the court hearing at the above court on the date and time shown. I don't want to go because I have no argument with the mother about my son [whom he then names]. I will be sending a letter signed and dated so she can have parental responsibility" (sic).
These missives were rightly regarded as not being a full consent, and so the father has been the subject of a number of approaches, either by Mr. Ford of the CAFCASS High Court team, or the court itself, in order to try and arrange for his production here today to give his views on the subjects I am invited to determine. But he has, I am informed by the Security and Prison Services, refused to attend and declined to leave the prison in which he is currently incarcerated. I am quite satisfied he has had proper notice of this hearing. The detail of the attempts and more to contact him are set out at the head of a draft order prepared by Mr. Carr, counsel who appears for the mother.
A has a guardian in these proceedings, Mr. John Power of the CAFCASS High Court team, appointed by my order of 20 th May of this year. He has filed a full and typically carefully considered and balanced report. He supports the making of these three orders.
THE BACKGROUND
A's father is rising 32. His mother is 29. They were not married. The father acquired parental responsibility for his son, A, by operation of law when the mother registered the father on the birth certificate.
Both parents have other children. The details of the father's other child are not known. The mother's older son is R, now six. He lives with his mother and A at a confidential address. The father is currently in prison, as I have earlier indicated, for reasons which will appear in more detail below. His other child plays no part in the mother's, R's, or A's life, and never has.
The relationship between the mother and father was, at least in the very early stages, reasonably good, though the mother's account (not accepted in full by the father although he does not seek to litigate the factual background) describes a swift deterioration, with the father becoming increasingly controlling and, at times, violent.
The first prosecuted common assault by him upon her occurred in 2009, as a result of which he received a two-year community penalty, a fine and an order to attend a domestic violence awareness course. If he did so, he did not learn anything from it, for in December 2011 the mother was subjected to a prolonged and vicious assault. She describes amongst other acts being stabbed, punched, kicked, dragged by her hair, strangled to the point where she feared she would die, and being the victim of a sustained and degrading assault. A part of that assault was witnessed by the children. She has suffered a perforated eardrum and many soft tissue injuries. He threatened to kill her and to have the house shot at with the children in it if she went to the police. The full detail of this horror is spelt out in her two statements of 7 th March and 25 th June of this year. It would be gratuitous to continue with this recital of her degradation at his hands. In his post-arrest police interview under caution, though he baulks at some of the allegations made by her, he makes a series of admissions sufficient to ground the charges referred to below on any view.
In subsequent days following on from that assault on 23 rd December of 2011, her home — which she had fled, taking the children with her following her report of these matters to the police — was burgled. A police car placed outside it for the protection of the family was set afire, as was her brother's car and that of her brother-in-law. It is probable that the father was behind these acts, even if he did not perpetrate them himself.
On 28 th December 2011 he was arrested, interviewed under caution, charged, and in due course appeared at the Crown Court, where he was sentenced on 26th June of last year to two years' immediate imprisonment for causing grievous bodily harm with intent; three years' imprisonment for false imprisonment of the mother; and other lesser periods for non-related crimes. This was not his first brush with the courts. To give some flavour of his criminal past, one has only to look at the list of his previous convictions provided to me in the police disclosure. I can summarise it quickly. Between 1997 and 2012 he has run up a daunting number of convictions, 10 offences against the person, three offences against property, six offences of theft and kindred, one public disorder offence, 14 offences relating to police courts and prisons, seven drug offences, one firearms/shotguns/offensive weapon charge, and miscellaneous others, amounting in all to a further 21.
The mother has been prescribed citalopram for her anxiety. She has received some private counselling from her GP. She has been referred to her local mental health team for a form of therapy referred to as "EMDR" — eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing — a form of therapy that I am told by Mr. Power is often prescribed for soldiers returning from the horrors of Afghanistan. She has been diagnosed as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The sort of event which triggers her post traumatic stress disorder attacks is described fully in her statements. It would be unkind to repeat it, as a shocking reminder of her travails.
What of A? He, too, has special needs. To give a flavour of his particular difficulties, I shall read from the mother's statement of 25 th June, where at paragraphs 34–35 she says this:
"34 A also often suffers from nightmares. A has always suffered with high anxiety. He currently has one-to-one sessions at nursery. He is due to go to school in September. He often shows highly distressed behaviour. He head-buts hard surfaces and self harms. Due to A's problems, he really struggles to adapt to change. As he is due to begin school in September, he is currently going to school every day to familiarise himself with the school building. We are in the process of collating a scrapbook including pictures and words, otherwise over the summer holidays he will forget about everything he has learned about the school and September would be extremely difficult for him.
35 The experts believe that A may be suffering from pathological demand avoidance syndrome. However, A cannot be...
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