C (A Child), Re

Lord Justice Thorpe:

This is an application which was heard by Wilson LJ without notice on 27 January. Having heard the applicant mother, he decided to adjourn her application for hearing on notice to the respondent with appeal to follow if permission granted. He anticipated that the respondent father would receive public funding and he ascertained that counsel who represented the father below, Miss Goldie, would be available on 3 February and accordingly fixed the case for hearing on that date. Unfortunately it was not so listed. There was at least one application for adjournment, which was considered by Holman J. He adjourned the case for hearing today. There is no appearance by the respondent husband or by Miss Goldie and we must assume perhaps that public funding was not made available.

The point that troubled Wilson LJ is easily identified by reference to the order of the judge below, HHJ Harington, of 19 June 2008. On that day he had before him an application by the mother to enlarge the supervised contact that she was having to the child of the relationship, Joshua Alexander, who was born on 5 January 2001. The application faced considerable obstacles, which I would identify as follows. There are concerns about the mother’s health. On 21 December 2004 a consultant adult psychiatrist had recorded the opinion:

“I am broadly in agreement with previous experts that this lady suffers from a schizophreniform illness.”

Accordingly on 21 May the district judge had adjourned the mother’s application, recording that the mother wished to obtain legal representation and ordering that she should file copies of all medical evidence, including Dr Fear’s last report by 30 May.

Appearing before HHJ Harington on 19 June, the mother informed him that she had seen a solicitor but he was unable to act for her. There was no sign of any of the medical evidence directed.

A second obstacle in her path was that the professional social worker, Lynne Pardoe, had filed a report dated 11 April 2008 in which she recommended that contact should continue without enlargement, namely that it should continue as supervised contact. At the hearing the judge heard evidence from the social worker who had taken over the case from Lynne Pardoe, a Mrs Price. Mrs Price expressed her view not only on the desirability or the need to maintain supervision but also that the mother was unlikely to comply with any direction for filing the necessary reports.

So when the judge came to give judg