Thomas (Tina Lee) Application
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Coghlin J |
| Judgment Date | 12 September 2000 |
| Neutral Citation | [2000] NIQB 29 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 12 September 2000 |
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Neutral Citation no. (2000) 2110
Ref:
COGC3243
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered:
01/09/00
(subject to editorial corrections)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION (CROWN SIDE)
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IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION BY TINA LEE THOMAS
FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW
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COGHLIN J
In this case the applicant, Tina Lee Thomas, seeks judicial review of a decision,
made on 4 December 1997, by the Secretary of State for the Home Department
(“Secretary of State”) to deport the applicant from the United Kingdom.
The applicant is a national of the United States of America, having been born in
Texas on 11 September 1965, and, in the course of an affidavit sworn on
12 February 1998, she furnished details of her childhood and adolescence. She stated
that her parents divorced when she was very young and that she spent approximately
two and a half years at an orphanage before going to live with her grandmother when
she was four years of age. When the applicant reached the age of nine her
grandmother died and the applicant spent the next eight years being, to use her own
words, “farmed out” to various family friends and relatives. She has described her
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adolescent life as being “extremely chaotic and unhappy” and, from time to time, she
received counselling and therapy for depression. The applicant has stated that, upon
one occasion, she attempted suicide. The applicant attended the University of Texas
and, ultimately, successfully completed a degree in Art History. Thereafter she worked
“from time to time” supporting herself with the assistance of a small inheritance.
Miss Burden, a Social Worker employed by the North and West Belfast Health
and Social Services Trust (“the Trust”) recorded in her report dated 27 October 1997
that:
“During this period Ms Thomas’ apparent self-destructive
lifestyle and erratic employment history reflected
significantly the lack of family stability she experienced in
childhood and adolescence. As a consequence Ms Thomas
stated she suffered from depression. Ms Thomas has also
alluded to several episodes of therapy and one self-referral
to hospital for mental health difficulties.”
The applicant became pregnant at the age of fifteen and subsequently
underwent an abortion and, after becoming pregnant for a second time, at the age of
seventeen, she arranged for the child to be adopted. At all times she has been acutely
aware of her lack of a stable family background and she has expressed herself as being
deeply frustrated by American “values”.
At paragraphs of her affidavit she stated that she decided to move to Ireland
because she believed that she could find a “better, more nurturing, way of life”
although she told Miss Burden that she had decided to come to Ireland “for a holiday”.
Miss Burden recorded that the plaintiff told her that:
“She had recently converted to Catholicism and states that
she had a great grandfather from Donegal. As an isolated
and rootless adult who seemed to feel keenly a sense of
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isolation in the USA she had a, perhaps, romanticised
notion of gaining a sense of belonging and connecting this
in a small Irish community, also states she has an interest
in Irish history and politics and this brought her to Belfast.”
The applicant left America and arrived at Shannon Airport on 12 August 1996.
At the airport her passport was stamped with a three-month entry permit although it
seems that she subsequently lost her passport. On 15 August 1996 the applicant
travelled from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland thereby acquiring leave to
enter the United Kingdom for three months in accordance with the Immigration
(Control of Entry through Republic of Ireland) Order 1972. Her three months leave
expired on 15 November 1996 and thereafter she has remained unlawfully within the
United Kingdom.
It appears that the applicant became pregnant within a fairly short time of her
arrival in Northern Ireland since, on 6 July 1997, she gave birth to a female child named
Aoife Frances Thomas at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast. The applicant had
booked in for ante-natal care at the Royal Maternity Hospital in January 1997 and it
appears that she was hospitalised on three occasions during her pregnancy.
During the course of compiling the report for the Trust the applicant told
Miss Burden that in March 1997 she had contacted the Catholic Welfare Care
Association Adoption Agency stating that, in the event of being deported, it would be
preferable for her to arrange to have her baby adopted in Ireland and that she would
then commit suicide.
During the course of the hospital admissions she was assessed by a Psychiatrist
as being in need of emotional support and, on 25 April 1997, she presented to
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