Finchley Central, N3 1BQ |
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B e f o r e :
(In Private)
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LONDON BOROUGH OF BARNET | Applicant | |
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M/F | Respondent |
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MR. S. CHIPPECK (instructed by Pearsons Solicitors) appeared on behalf of the Respondent Mother.
MR. C. LARIZADEH (instructed by Dawson Cornwell Solicitors) appeared on behalf of the Respondent Father.
MS. P. RAY appeared on behalf of the Child
MISS C. LITTLE, (Solicitor, Hanne & Co) appeared on behalf of the Child's Guardian.
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Crown Copyright ©
JUDGE MAYER:
Miss Markham, representing the local authority, and the allocated social worker, Rachel Bray, each prepared a chronology of events since my last judgment in this case. I incorporate the chronologies into this judgment and intend to deal with salient events only .
(a) Although the mother has agreed prior to November 2013 to be seen by an experienced adult psychiatrist, she subsequently withdrew her agreement. She agreed, eventually, on 12 March 2014, to see a psychiatrist of her choice, on condition that the papers in this case, my judgments and my findings, are not to be made available to this expert. The futility of this exercise does not need elaboration. Her prevarication caused delay in the resolution of this case. The result is that I do not have an expert opinion on the mother's mental health and particularly on the risk of her relapsing into earlier patterns of dysfunctional behaviour. I have to proceed the best I can on the basis of available information.
(b) Despite the mother agreeing that C should engage in therapy, and despite the significant efforts his solicitor made to find a therapist who would comply with C's sometimes absurd requirements, C has refused to engage in therapy. This window of opportunity has now been closed. Should he ever consider engaging in therapy, he, or realistically his mother, will have to organise the same.
(c) Despite the expressions of hope about progressing the relationship between C and his father, little has happened in real terms, especially in terms of C altering his sometimes contentious, and somewhat arrogant and belittling, attitude towards his father. Direct contact has been minimal. There has been none this year until 29 June. The one contact arranged for April was cancelled by the father who, having regard to C's attitude towards him as expressed in his sporadic emails, did not want to pressurise his son, and considered that coming to the UK without firm commitment to contact actually taking place would be a wasted trip.
(d)I was told that a face to face contact took place on 29 June, the day before this hearing. It lasted about six hours and was, by the accounts both of the father and C to his solicitor, good, with warm moments. Having regard to the history of this case, I have questioned the effect of the proximity of this hearing (in the light of C's wishes as expressed to the social worker and the guardian and in his statements) on the quality of contact. I hope I am wrong in thinking that there may be a causal connection between the two.
(e) On the positive side, C's school attendance in the academic year of 2013/2014 was 99 per cent. There is one unauthorised attendance which is in dispute. I place no weight on it.
(f) On current available information, C has not attended any medical appointments since July of last year. All his extensive ailments and conditions have "spontaneously" resolved. There has been no indication from the school that C was unable to participate in sports or any other physical activities organised in the course of his curriculum. He has joined a three-week school trip from which he returned some three to four days ago. Despite some earlier concerns about his eating habits, the trip was, according to the assistant deputy head, a real success for C, who integrated well with adults and other children and enjoyed the trip greatly. The assistant deputy head commented on how much C developed from the time he joined the school.
(g) For the first time since C started school at the age of five (and with the exception of one year), there have been no allegations of bullying, be it physical, verbal or cyber. Such fantasy he engaged in when making the allegations of November 2012 has not been repeated. Bearing in mind the history of this case, the last year was almost unique in there not being any complaints by the mother against teachers, headmasters, doctors, police or indeed anybody other than social services.
(h) Some four months out of date, on 11 May 2014, the mother finally submitted her grounds for an application for permission to appeal my judgments. I have not read the grounds, except for glancing at the first two to three pages. I am told that the application was contained in a 100 page document. I take from that that the mother did not accept any of my findings. Her application was dismissed by Lady Justice Macur as being totally without merit on 19 May 2014. The learned Lady Justice said inter alia that:
"The grounds of appeal are subjective criticism from one who cannot conceive any interpretation of the available evidence which does not accord with her own."
(i)The mother did not deal with the dismissal of her application for permission to appeal, and/or acceptance of my findings, in her most recent statement. Although the dismissal of her application means that the mother can no longer argue with any of my findings, I am satisfied that she still does not accept them.
(j)By an order of the court, Dr. Asen spent two sessions in January of this year going through the findings with C. He reported that, whilst C was prepared to sit and hear what Dr. Asen was saying, he did not necessarily listen, and was unwilling to enter into any discussion in respect of the issues the findings raised. C displayed no emotion and offered no reaction, save for asking Dr. Asen to move on from providing detail. I assume C too does not accept any of my findings. Miss Ray told me that he just wants to put the history behind him or, as he says in his statement, he wishes not to be forced to relive his past.
(k)The cooperation between C and his allocated social workers was perfunctory, as was the cooperation between his mother and the social workers. His original good cooperation with the guardian was, in her words, replaced by hostility and suspicion. She said that never before has she been the subject of such sustained contempt as expressed by him throughout the time between December of last year and June of this year. I have seen emails from C to the Guardian, which support her views. She did say in her final analysis that the last meeting was not as hostile as previous meetings have been. Again, without wanting to be suspicious, C may well have had the date of the final hearing in mind.
"No application for any exercise of the court's inherent jurisdiction with respect to children may be made by a local authority unless the authority has obtained the leave of the court.
(4) The court may only grant leave if it is satisfied that (a) the result which the authority wished to achieve could not be achieved through the making of any order of the kind to which subsection (5) applies and (b) there is reasonable cause to believe that, if the court's inherent jurisdiction is not exercised with respect to the child, he is likely to suffer significant harm.
(5) applies to any order (a) made otherwise than in the exercise of the court's inherent jurisdiction and (b) which the local authority is entitled to apply for assuming, in the case of any application which may only be made with leave, the leave is granted."
"You must obey the instructions contained in the above paragraph. If you do not, you will be guilty of contempt of court and you may be sent to prison or find or your assets may be seized. The courts have jurisdiction to punish a breach of any order by way of a fine up to £2,500 or a committal to prison for up to two years in contempt proceedings."
"Without written consent of the father, the mother would be prohibited from changing C school, changing his primary address, removing him from the jurisdiction, applying to change his nationality, applying for a passport or any other identifying document in this jurisdiction or abroad."