B (Children)
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE ELIAS
- LADY JUSTICE BLACK
- MR JUSTICE MITTING
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Evidence Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Judge Levey's findings on family proceedings involving two children were appealed, focusing on allegations of sexual impropriety by the father. The appeal questioned the handling of M's credibility and corroborating evidence. The court affirmed most findings but struck out the conclusion regarding a November 7 incident.
Judgment
Lord Justice Elias :
This is an appeal from the judgment of His Honour Judge Levey sitting in the Portsmouth County Court, in which he made certain findings of fact potentially relevant to certain applications before him.
The findings were made in the context of family proceedings relating to two children. The first, O, was born on 20 April 2006 and the second, J, on 12 April 2009. Their parents, who never married, had commenced their relationship in 2004 and they stayed together until the end of 2011 when the relationship ended following an allegation of sexual assault made by the mother’s daughter, M, then aged 17. She was the mother’s child from an earlier relationship. The father was a teacher in a local secondary school.
Criminal proceedings were taken against the father but the prosecution offered no evidence against him and the jury returned not guilty verdicts on the direction of the judge. That was in November 2012. This led to renewed contact between the father and his two children, initially on a supervised basis at a centre.
Subsequently the contact was supervised by the father’s sister but that arrangement unfortunately broke down and direct contact (as opposed to telephone contact) came to an end because the father declined the opportunity of resuming contact at the centre.
Renewed arrangements were made to ensure proper contact but following the intervention of the local authority, the guardian suggested that any contact should be suspended as a result of certain concerns expressed by the local authority.
The applications before the court relates to shared residence, contact, and an application by the father for a prohibited steps order to prevent the mother from taking the children away from the area of Basingstoke. (In fact she has now moved with them to Bristol.) The judge considered that these matters could not be resolved until the fact finding exercise in relation to disputed factual matters had been determined. The guardian properly adopted a neutral role in the proceedings before the judge although she was represented, as was the mother. I confess I find it a matter of no small concern that the father was not represented despite the potential implications of the findings for his future relationship with his children. He was, however, assisted by a Mackenzie friend.
There were various allegations which were the subject of the fact finding inquiry. They fell into a number of categories. First, and potentially most impo