Re B (Minors) (Wardship: Power to detain)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 20 May 1994 |
| Date | 20 May 1994 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Butler-Sloss, Lord Justice Kennedy and Lord Justice Hobhouse
Children - wardship proceedings - power of arrest
The High Court in its wardship jurisdiction had to release a person arrested and detained under a seek and find order once he or she appeared before the court unless contempt could be proved, although before release the court was entitled to satisfy itself that the person had given all the information he was able to provide.
The Court of Appeal so held giving its reasons for having on April 20 allowing an appeal by the father of two children against an order of Mr Justice Singer that he be detained pending the return of the children to the United Kingdom from Algeria.
Mr Jeremy Posnansky, QC and Miss Katherine Davidson for the father; Mr Rodger Hayward Smith, QC and Miss Delyth Evans for the mother; Mr Peter A B Jackson for the guardian ad litem.
LORD JUSTICE BUTLER-SLOSS said the father had been arrested and detained under a bench warrant on a seek and find order and Mr Justice Singer had ordered his continued detention pending the return of the children, twins aged four, from Algeria. Their Lordships had ordered his release after listening to argument, without giving reasons, and had accepted a number of undertakings from him.
The father, who was Algerian, had taken the children to Algeria while their English mother was away, without her knowledge or consent. He had returned to England leaving the children in Algeria with their grandparents and on April 15 the mother had obtained a seek and find order against him which was served the following day and he was arrested. Mr Justice Singer had ordered that the father be detained by the tipstaff until the children were taken to the British Embassy in Algiers.
Since his release, the father had broken the undertakings he gave to the court and had apparently left the jurisdiction. That demonstrated a worrying lack of teeth available to the court, in the absence of a finding of contempt, to compel the carrying out of orders in international child abduction cases.
The short issue was whether the court in the wardship jurisdiction had the power to detain any person appearing before it. The issue of a bench warrant was to secure the attendance at court of the person arrested and detained and was a direction ancillary to the investigation by the court of the relevant issues.
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