O v P
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | District Judge (MC) Meehan |
| Judgment Date | 20 December 2012 |
| Neutral Citation | [2012] NICty 5 |
| Year | 2012 |
| Court | County Court (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 20 December 2012 |
1
Neutral Citation No. [2012] NICty 5 Ref: 2012NICty5
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down Delivered: 20/12/2012
(subject to editorial corrections)*
FAMILY PROCEEDINGS COURT SITTING AT DUNGANNON
________
COUNTY COURT DIVISION OF FERMANAGH AND TYRONE
________
BETWEEN:
O
Applicant;
-and-
P
Respondent.
________
AND BY CROSS-APPLICATION
BETWEEN:
P
-and-
O
________
Judgment of Dungannon Family Proceedings Court, sitting
on 20th December, 2012
________
Meehan, District Judge (MC)
[1] All information which might tend to identify the family concerned has
been removed from this text, in order to protect the rights of the family and of
the children concerned. The judgment is being distributed on the strict
understanding that in any report no person may be identified by name or
2
location, other than as disclosed in this text, and in particular the anonymity of
the children and the adult members of their family must be strictly preserved.
The background
[2] This was a father's application, dated 25th May 2012, for a Residence
Order in respect of the 3 subject children of his marriage with Mrs. P, as she is
now known, following her recent re-marriage. The Respondent, in turn, issued a
cross-Application dated 18th July. By that cross-application, Mrs. P sought a
Residence Order in respect of G only, a Contact Order in respect of her other 2
children and a Prohibited Steps Order to prevent the Applicant removing any of
the children from the UK without leave of the Court. One treats that as properly
an application to prevent removal from Northern Ireland.
[3] Mr. O is from Algeria, where he was raised as a Muslim. He is 43. He
adheres to all tenets of that creed religiously and has always done so. Mrs. P is
Northern Irish and 46 years old. They commenced a relationship in December
1996 and were married in February 1997, so it was a very short courtship.
[4] It was agreed between these parties at the time that any children would be
raised as Muslims. Mrs. P converted to Islam in July 1997. Throughout the
marriage, during which the growing family lived in Belfast, all Muslim customs
were strictly observed, including the consumption of only Halal meat, Ramadan,
appropriate dress and regular attendance at their Mosque in the city. Mrs. P
covered her head in public and at one stage was minded to go further. All 3
subject children were raised in accordance with Muslim creed and culture, up to
2010 at least.
[5] Concerning the breakdown of the marriage, Mrs. P made the case in her
Statements of Evidence and in her testimony before us that this was due in large
part to domestic violence. Nonetheless, she made no illusion to that in her Form
C1, where she stated that the children were not, nor had been, at risk. Her
Petition for Divorce, filed in April 2005, was evidenced on the simple fact of
living apart for a period of 2 years, with her husband's consent.
[6] The parties did continue to live together in the same household at that
time. Mrs. P asserts in one Statement that this was only during the annual period
of Ramadan and because it was important for the man to be with his family at
that particular time, but we reject that. The parties actually separated, in the
sense that Mr. O moved to another house, only in 2010.
[7] This rather ambivalent situation does appear to have led to episodes of
frustration on occasion. On 20th September 2006 (well over a year after filing a
3
Petition asserting that the parties were living apart), Mrs. P swore a Statement
before a District Judge and thereby obtained an Interim Non-Molestation Order
without Notice to Mr. O and on the basis of domestic violence allegations. At
that time she had moved to a Women's Aid Refuge with the children. Her
evidence before us on the subject was evasive, but it does appear that, while Mr.
O was served with the Summons, he ignored the proceedings entirely. On the
return date, Mrs. P withdrew the Complaint unilaterally. To us, she testified that
"we were trying to sort things out for the children” and did not elaborate. In all,
taking account of Mr. O's trenchant denial that there was any such domestic
violence, we find that Mrs. P has failed to prove this aspect of her case. Mr. O's
view was that the Court Order had been obtained simply to have something on
record against him. Mrs. P had caused the Police to call and have him put out of
the house and yet, within a day or two, she rang to ask him back.
[8] There was another flight which Mrs. P ascribed to domestic violence in her
account to us. At one point, she testified, she fled to a Muslim refuge in England
to escape her husband's cruelty. We found Mr. O's account more persuasive. He
testified that she had in fact gone to a Muslim Women's conference, for the
second year in a row. When he became concerned about her failure to answer his
calls, he traced a contact number and spoke to a Muslim woman. She told Mr. O
that Mrs. P would not be returning to Northern Ireland. He was not encouraging
her in her religious observances, his interlocutor said, and had asked her to take
off the Hijab, due to aggression encountered in the streets. For his part, he
testified that he had no idea of this crisis previously. When Mrs. P rang him back
she said that she would be returning to Northern Ireland in the full Burka, so far
as public appearances were concerned. His response had been "No way". She
would have been the first Muslim woman at that time, he told us, to wear the full
black garb in Northern Ireland. In the event, the whole issue seems to have
petered out. There was nothing in this which advanced Mrs. P's case that she had
been driven away by virtue of domestic violence.
[9] G was born in March 2007, almost 2 years after the filing of the Divorce
Petition. Mrs. P's rather laconic explanation for this was that she was a fully
subjugated woman and that her husband's continued sexual interest formed part
of that. Mr. O's version made more sense to us; she brightened up for a spell and
became really friendly again, not like before, and the parties were still in the
same household. He understood that she was using a contraceptive device, but it
turned out that she had abandoned it. As he saw it, she did this on purpose so
that she could have him for ever. He denied that he rejected G on that account.
They were living together in the same house at that time. He accepted G even
before he saw her, he said.
To continue reading
Request your trial