A Local Authority v HB (First Respondent) MB (Second Respondent) ML and BL (by their Children's Guardian) (Third and Fourth Respondents)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice MacDonald |
| Judgment Date | 26 May 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] EWHC 1437 (Fam) |
| Court | Family Division |
| Date | 26 May 2017 |
| Docket Number | Case No: FD16P000415 |
[2017] EWHC 1437 (Fam)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
The Honourable Mr Justice MacDonald
Case No: FD16P000415
and
and
Mr Oliver Jones (instructed by the Local Authority Solicitor) for the Applicant
Mr Christopher Barnes (instructed by Irvine Thanvi Natas Solicitors) for the First Respondent
The Second Respondent did not appear and was not represented
Ms Shabana Jaffar (instructed by CAFCASS) for the Third and Fourth Respondents
Hearing dates: 2 and 3 May 2017
This judgment was delivered in private. The Judge has given permission for this anonymised version of the judgment (and any of the facts and matters contained in it) to be published on condition always that the names and the addresses of the parties and the children must not be published. For the avoidance of doubt, the strict prohibition on publishing the names and addresses of the parties and the children will continue to apply where that information has been obtained by using the contents of this judgment to discover information already in the public domain. All persons, including representatives of the media, must ensure that these conditions are strictly complied with. Failure to do so will be a contempt of court.
INTRODUCTION
In this matter, I am concerned with the welfare of ML, aged 6, and BL, aged 3. The First Respondent, HB is the mother of the children. The Second Respondent, MB, also known as MM, is the father of the children. The father does not appear and is not represented at this hearing. He is believed to be in Syria and may have been killed there. The children's interests are represented by their Children's Guardian.
These proceedings are brought by the local authority. The applications before the court in respect of the children comprise an application for orders under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court and an application for orders under Part IV of the Children Act 1989.
The circumstances by which these parallel applications came to be made are set out in my previous judgment in these proceedings, which judgment has the neutral citation HB v A Local Authority & Anor (Wardship: Costs Funding Order) [2017] EWHC 524 (Fam). The proceedings under the inherent jurisdiction were issued on 8 August 2016 on the stated grounds that "the mother is planning or attempting to travel to Syria with the children and that the children are at risk of being radicalised or involved in radicalising action". The proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989 were issued on 20 March 2017.
In summary, in this matter the local authority seeks findings against the mother that on one occasion she took the children to a town in Turkey close to the Syrian border, that on two occasions she has been stopped leaving the country with large sums of money, that she has sought take the children to Syria, that she has sought to provide funds to persons associated with the so called Islamic State, that she holds, and sympathises with extremist views and that, within this context, she has placed, and is likely to place her children at risk of significant harm. Whilst accepting that the mother's care of the children is otherwise very good, the local authority seeks orders under the inherent jurisdiction to prevent the mother from removing the children from the jurisdiction of England and Wales for the remainder of their minority. It seeks no orders under Part IV of the Children Act 1989.
At the outset of these proceedings the mother contended that there were entirely innocent explanations in respect of her conduct and that the local authority's case comprised nothing more than an assertion of guilt by association with a family member who does have established links to extremism and terrorism. Latterly, the mother has conceded that she has not, in fact, been fully frank with professionals and the court and has proffered an account of her trip to Turkey, and one subsequent attempt to travel to that country, centring on a desire to persuade the father to agree to return to England and meet his responsibilities towards his children. The mother continues, emphatically, to deny that it was ever her intention to take the children into Syria, to deny that she has sought to provide funds to persons associated with the so called Islamic State and to deny that she holds or sympathises with extremist views. Through Mr Barnes, the mother submits that the local authority's case to the contrary is not proved and that the applications should be dismissed.
During the course of this final hearing I have heard evidence from PC Q, of the SO15 Counter-Terrorism Command Safeguarding Team, the previously allocated social worker, CN, the mother's sister, JB, the mother and the Children's Guardian. I also have before me two lever arch files of documentary evidence. It is, regrettably, necessary to set out the background to this matter in some detail.
BACKGROUND
The Maternal Family
The mother is a British citizen and holds a British passport. The maternal family, including the mother, fled from the civil war in Somalia to Yemen when the mother was 2 years old. Civil war in the Yemen caused the family to flee again when the mother was 7 years old, to the United Kingdom. The family, including the mother, claimed asylum in the United Kingdom. The mother is part of a large sibling group. The mother contends that her own father is particularly important to her (and this was clearly evident in the emotion she exhibited when she gave oral evidence) he having supported her in her education and in her professional ambitions, as well as supporting her as a single parent. Both the mother and her sister, JB, have achieved degree level qualifications. The mother is in secure employment and her sister is seeking employment.
One of the mother's brothers, RB, was involved in terrorist activity prior to his death. The mother confirmed in evidence that she believes he was involved both with Al Shabab in Somalia and with Al Qaeda at certain points. In 2008 he was tried in relation to terrorism but found not guilty. At some point, subsequent to this, intelligence suggests that RB made his way to Syria and joined the so called Islamic State. Intelligence also suggests that RB was killed in Syria. The Police identified RB from pictures of deceased males on a Twitter account. The mother confirms that the family have seen " hardcore" confirmation of his death in the form of pictures of his body on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. As a result of the activities of RB, the maternal family home has been the subject of Police raids on a number of occasions. Both the mother and her sister gave evidence that their father and RB would argue regularly as their father did not agree with his RB's extremist views. The mother asserted that her father co-operated fully with the Police and professionals and that her father was moderate in his religious beliefs.
Another brother of the mother's, SB and the partner of JB, TB were convicted, with others, of conspiracy to commit fraud. Whilst it is clear that there was much speculation at the time that the fraud was perpetrated to fund terrorism, this was never established as a fact during the criminal trial and no terrorism charges were laid within those criminal proceedings or subsequently. Although the previously allocated social worker CN contends in her statement that " Despite not being convicted of an offence specifically related to terrorist activities, it is clear from the disclosure that there was evidence to link this money to fund terrorist activities and possible links to terrorist organisations", the " evidence" CN cites consists of speculation in the print media. In her oral evidence PC Q confirmed that no evidence linking the fraud to terrorism was led in the criminal trial, nor are the Police aware of any such evidence.
As I have already noted, the mother has repeatedly denied that she holds to a radical or extreme ideology. She accepts that her family has come to the attention of the Police because of RB's activities and that the whole family has been affected by those activities. The mother however, emphatically rejects the local authority's case that she shared RB's ideology or was part of a family network of extremists.
The Father
The mother met the father (then also known as MM) through mutual friends. The parents underwent an Islamic marriage but did not live together. The mother contends that the father was aggressive towards her at times during the course of the marriage. There was an incident of domestic violence by the father against the mother in 2012 to which incident the Police were called and the father spoken to. At that point the father is recorded as giving his name as B. This tends to suggest that he was using this alias during the currency of the parents' marriage. Following a period of separation consequent upon this incident, the parents reconciled. However, the relationship again deteriorated and the parents separated finally in 2013. The father maintained contact with the children.
The mother states that the father " disappeared" at the end of 2013. Records show that on 22 December 2013 the father left on a flight to Istanbul and there is no record of his return to the United Kingdom. The mother endeavoured to contact him via his mobile telephone to ascertain his whereabouts but the phone did not connect. When the mother enquired of the father's family, the mother stated that the family initially did not know where he was. Intelligence suggests that the father has been in Syria since the end of 2013 and this belief was confirmed by Police at a Prevent Strategy Meeting...
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