P McC (Contact: Change of Name)
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Stephens J |
| Judgment Date | 18 November 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2010] NIFam 21 |
| Date | 18 November 2010 |
| Court | Family Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Year | 2010 |
1
Neutral Citation No. [2010] NIFam 21
Ref:
STE8013
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered:
18/11/2010
(subject to editorial corrections)*
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
________
FAMILY DIVISION
________
~P McC~ (Contact: Change of Name)
________
STEPHENS J
Anonymisation and background to this judgment.
[1] On Thursday 18 November 2010 I gave an ex tempore judgment. I have
anonymised and made amendments to the transcript of that judgment. I now
make the transcript as anonymised and amended available to the parties.
[2] Nothing should be published which would identify the child or any
member of his extended family. I make it clear that any breach of this order is
a contempt of court for which a number of penalties are available.
[3] The parties are requested to consider the terms of this judgment and to
inform the Office of Care and Protection in writing within one week as to
whether there is any reason why the judgment should not be published on
the Court Service website or as to whether it requires any further
anonymisation prior to publication. If the Office is not so informed within
that timescale then it will be submitted to the Library for publication in its
present form.
Introduction
[4] This case concerns ~P McC~ a boy who is aged 10.
[5] ~P McC’s~ mother, ~A McC~, lives and works in Northern Ireland and
is of the Roman Catholic faith. ~P McC~ resides with his mother.
[6] ~P McC’s~ father, ~X W~, is a British citizen who was born in a Middle
Eastern country which I shall anonymise by referring to it as country ~D~.
He has lived and worked in the United Kingdom for a substantial number of
2
years and he currently lives and works in England. He moved to England at
the age of 17. He is now 51. He is of the Muslim faith.
[7] ~X W~ brought this application seeking an order that his contact with
~P McC~ should be unsupervised and also for the restoration of ~P McC’s~
names as on his birth certificate. The names on ~P McC’s~ birth certificate
incorporated two additional forenames. I shall refer to first additional
forename by the initial ~S~ and the second by the initial ~Z~. The first
additional forename is a name widely used throughout the United Kingdom.
There is a Christian religious reference in the name though in modern society
overwhelmingly that is not the perceived reason for its use but rather it is
seen as a western secular name. The second additional forename was the
name of a number of early pre Muslim great historic leaders of that region of
the Middle East closely associated with the area now known as country ~D~.
I shall refer to that forename by the initial ~Z~. The surname on his birth
certificate was a hyphenated double barrel surname incorporating both the
surnames of ~P McC’s~ parents. I shall refer to the original surname by the
initials ~ McC-W~.
[8] As can be seen in this judgment I refer to:-
(a) The child by the initials ~P McC~.
(b) The mother by the initials ~A McC~.
(c) The father by the initials ~X W~.
(d) The child’s names on his birth certificate as ~PSZ McC-
W~.
(e) The Middle Eastern country as country ~D~.
[9] An agreement was entered into between the parties on 18 November
2010. That agreement resolved the question of contact and restoration of ~P
McC’s~ names. It has been signed by the parties. It is supported by
undertakings given by ~X W~ and both of the parties are to be commended
for entering into that agreement. I set out the terms of the agreement which
were as follows.
1. They agree that the arrangements set out below are in ~P McC’s~ best
interests and that they will use their best endeavours to ensure that
they will conduct themselves in a manner which will promote ~P
McC’s~ well being and happiness.
2. ~P McC~ shall have contact once per month on the first Monday of the
month with the applicant father. The contact shall be supervised by an
adult, the identity of which shall be agreed between the parties.
Initially that adult will be an employee from a child care organisation.
The contact will be from after school for a maximum of 3 hours, and
will be dependent on the time at which the child care organisation
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