Re L (Minors) (Sexual abuse: Disclosure)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 31 July 1997 |
| Date | 31 July 1997 |
| Court | Family Division |
Family Division
Before Mr Justice Bennett
Children - sexual abuse - disclosure of information to non-parties
In matters affecting children a judge sitting in chambers had power to control to whom and in what circumstances facts given in evidence and findings made by him should be given to persons or authorities who were not party to the proceedings.
Mr Justice Bennett so held in the Family Division when granting an application by a local authority that the address of a father, whom he had found earlier to have committed serious acts of sexual abuse against some of his children, should be disclosed to it, with leave for that information to be further disclosed to the local authority in whose area the father was then residing.
Mr David Bedingfield and Miss Rebecca Brown for the local authority; Mr Allan Levy, QC and Mr Anthony Callaway for the father.
MR JUSTICE BENNETT said that while the potentially serious effect of such disclosure should be borne in mind, there was a strong public interest in ensuring that a local authority involved in care proceedings in which allegations of sexual abuse had been proved should be able to disclose that information to another local authority, in whose area the perpetrator was residing, specifically for the protection of children who might come into contact with him.
Furthermore, without such necessary information local authorities would be unable to carry out their statutory duties under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need within their area and, under section 47 of the 1989 Act, to make inquiries to enable them to decide whether take action to protect a child at risk of suffering significant harm.
Rejecting the contention that the case of R v Chief Constable of North Wales Police and Others, Ex parte AB and AnotherTLR (The Times July 14, 1997) was...
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Re L (minors) (sexual abuse: disclosure)Re V (minors) (sexual abuse: disclosure)
...of non-disclosure in both cases and the appeals would be allowed. Decisions of Bennett J in Re L (minors) (sexual abuse: disclosure) [1998] 1 FCR 258 and of Judge Bonvin in Re V (minors) (sexual abuse: disclosure) (unreported, 2 September 1997) Cases referred to in judgmentA CC v W[1996] 3 ......
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Re v (Sexual Abuse: Disclosure); Re L (Sexual Abuse: Disclosure)
...or to any other local authority without the leave of the court. His judgment is reported in Re L (Minors)(sexual abuse:disclosure) [1998] 1 FCR 258. Mr L appealed to this Court against the granting of leave to disclose his address to the local authority. 3 The V case. In this appeal, the pa......