Andris Taukacs v Ludmila Taukaca

A lady, Mrs Ludmila Taukaca, was arrested at Birmingham International Airport late on the evening of Saturday, 1 ^st August 2015, pursuant to a "location order" directed to the Tipstaff of the High Court. She has been detained in custody ever since then and has been brought before me in custody during the course of this afternoon, Monday, 3 ^rd August 2015. As I speak these words, it is 16.15 in the afternoon. I do not know precisely the number of hours during which she has been in custody, but it is approximately 42 hours and has included two nights, namely, last Saturday and Sunday nights.

The circumstances of this case are, in my view, extremely grave, for I am quite satisfied on the basis of what I will shortly narrate that Mrs Taukaca should not have been arrested or detained in custody at all. I order her immediate release from custody, and hereby unreservedly apologise to her for the very great indignity and inconvenience which she has suffered and experienced, not to mention the loss of a lawful holiday this week with friends in Majorca.

In my view, the facts and circumstances of this case highlight a serious deficiency in the language of standard form location orders in Form 1A. The actual location order in the present case shows on its face that it was last revised in May 2011, so the wording of the present order has been in routine and almost daily use for over four years and is itself, essentially, a continuation of standard form orders that have been in routine use for a considerable number of years.

As the facts and circumstances of this case vividly illustrate, the language of the order is capable of seriously misleading police officers who are routinely asked by the Tipstaff actually to execute these orders. The making of location orders is, frankly, a regular and routine part of the work of High Court judges of the Family Division and, of course, part of the daily work of the Tipstaff and his staff; but it is likely that any given police officer up and down the land may be faced with executing such orders only once, or at the most a very small number of times, during his or her career.

The essential factual background to this case is that Mrs Ludmila Taukaca is a citizen of Latvia and was married for many years to her husband, Mr Andris Taukacs. Their marriage was, in fact, dissolved during 2014. From their marriage they have two children. The elder, Z, is now aged 23 and is, of course, fully adult. He lives somewhere in Northamptonshire in England. The younger, M, was born in September 2001 and so he is now aged 13 and three quarters.

In February 2015, that is, several months ago, the mother brought M to England from Latvia and he has been normally living with his mother in England ever since at an address in Smethwick near Birmingham.

On 29 ^th July 2015, that is, Wednesday of last week, the father issued an application pursuant to the provisions of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in which he asks for the summary return of his son, M to Latvia. The father contends that M was wrongfully removed to England and Wales by his mother last February.

As is relatively normal in proceedings under the Hague Convention, the father at once made a without notice application to a High Court judge sitting here at the Royal Courts of Justice for what is called a location order. The reason why such applications are routinely made, and such orders frequently granted, is, effectively, to stabilise a situation and reduce the risk of an abducting parent disappearing again with the child concerned and, maybe, travelling onwards to some other country, including possibly a country which is not itself a contracting party to the Hague Convention.

So it was that last Wednesday, 29 ^th July 2105, Roderick Wood J was asked to make, and did make, a location order in prescribed Form 1A. That order, in summary, requires the Tipstaff to locate the child concerned, and requires delivery up to the Tipstaff of documents, as I will later more fully describe.

I do not know the accurate statistic for the number of location orders made annually, which the Tipstaff, with his very small staff, is required to implement and execute. But, on the basis of my own personal experience and the volume of such applications applied for and made when I happen to be sitting as applications judge, I would be surprised if the total number of such orders did not amount to some hundreds a year. It is, frankly, quite impossible for the Tipstaff, based here in the Royal Courts of Justice, with a very small and incredibly overburdened and hardworking staff, actually to execute and implement such orders personally. So it is that, routinely, these orders tend to be executed by the police throughout the country on the instructions of, and as agent for, the Tipstaff. That is what happened in this case.

Last Wednesday evening, on the very day that the location order had been made, three police officers from the West Midlands Police attended at the home address of the mother in Smethwick. They clearly had copies of the order in their possession. I have before me a pro forma document of the Tipstaff headed "Confirmation of Service of a Court Order in a Child Abduction Case by a Police Officer". It explains that "this document shall be completed by the police officer serving/enforcing the order." I have the actual copy of that pro forma document which was signed by a police constable at Tipton police station in Tipton, which I assume is local to the mother's address in Smethwick. I will not in this public judgment name the police constable concerned, because it would be most unfair if the least criticism appeared to attach to that particular officer, the more so as he or she (I have no idea of the gender) has not had any opportunity of giving his or her account of matters.

This afternoon the deputy Tipstaff, who is holding the fort today in the absence of the Tipstaff himself, has, at my request, made contact with the relevant police station, but has been told that the police constable who executed the order is not working today. The officer will be on duty again during the course of tomorrow, but, patently, I cannot delay resolution of this case to hear his or her account.

I have, however, heard the account of the mother personally, on affirmation, assisted by, if I may say so, the most skilful and expert of interpreters. The mother gave her brief oral evidence this afternoon with complete clarity and intelligence and, for the purposes of my decision today and this judgment, I unreservedly accept what she told me. She told me that three officers attended at her home address in Smethwick. She said that they made available an interpreter over the telephone. That, if I may say so, is very much to the credit of the police. She said that they told her that she needed to surrender the passport and any other identity documents of her son, M. She told them that she did have his passport but did not have any other identity documents for him. He, himself, was not present, for then, as now, he was staying with his adult brother in Northamptonshire. The mother produced M's Latvian passport to the police and, correctly and in obedience to the location order, they took it with them. They promptly forwarded it to the Tipstaff here at the Royal Courts of Justice. It arrived in the post today and it is in my hands as I speak. That passport will, for the time being, be retained by the Tipstaff, pursuant to the location order, and, of course, to prevent any foreign travel by M.

The mother told me that the police also asked her about her own passport. She says that she is a citizen of Latvia alone. She has a Latvian passport. She produced it to the police. They examined it and made a note of details upon it. They then put it back on the table beside her and made no effort, and showed no desire, to take it with them.

The mother informed the police officers that about a month ago, she and two friends had booked to go on a holiday to Spain, flying out the following Saturday, namely, last Saturday, 1 ^st August 2015. She did not have her ticket or any travel documents with her, because one of her friends had made the booking and still had the tickets. But she says, and I accept, that she told the police about this proposed travel and asked them whether she was still allowed, herself, to fly to Spain. There was no travel booking in relation to her son, M, and no plan whatsoever for him to travel to Spain or anywhere else. Rather, he was going to continue staying with his elder brother in Northamptonshire, as I have described.

According to Mrs Taukaca, the police said to her words to the effect that, "Yes, you can travel to Spain. This order is nothing to do with you. You cannot take your son abroad, but you can travel to Spain." The police then left, taking the son's passport with them, but leaving the mother's passport with her.

The mother has explained this afternoon that she was still concerned and anxious about the lawfulness of her travelling to Spain. So last Friday, by now 31 ^st July, she went with her friend, who had made the booking, to the police station, taking now the ticket and other relevant...