CM, R (on the Application of) v Kingston-Upon-Thames County Court & Anor
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE HOLMAN
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Administrative Law
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves a father's application for judicial review after being denied direct contact with his daughter. The parents separated in late 2011, and following aggressive behavior allegations, the court ended direct contact in early 2012. The father's appeals and requests were denied by District Judge Smart and HHJ Williams. The renewed application for judicial review was considered pointless due to the significant passage of time and was ultimately denied. The father is advised to file a fresh application for contact.
J U D G M E N T
MR JUSTICE HOLMAN:
I have heard this application today in public and this is, of course, a public judgment. However, no report of this case in the media or elsewhere may name or indentify the child concerned nor either of her parents, nor identify the address at which she lives or any school which she attends.
This is a renewed application for permission to apply for judicial review after refusal on paper by the single judge, Stewart J, on 2 July 2014. The underlying subject matter is direct contact between a father and his daughter, now aged about four and a half.
The essential factual background is that there was a relationship between the two parents who, at one stage, lived together although they never married each other. From their relationship they have the one child, who was born during the spring 2010. Unfortunately the relationship between the parents broke down and there was a final separation between them in late 2011.
Initially, following the separation, there was some direct contact between the father and his daughter, and in particular there were three occasions of observed contact in late January and February 2012. As I understand it, those who had observed that contact made no negative reports of the actual occasions of contact themselves. There has, however, been no direct contact at all between the father and his daughter since February 2012, now about two years and eight months ago. At the time of the last direct contact she was about 22 months old.
At an early stage following the separation, the mother made serious allegations of aggressive behaviour against the father. There was in due course a fact finding hearing before a judge, District Judge John Smart in the Kingston-upon-Thames county court. In his later judgment, specifically in relation to contact, District Judge John Smart conveniently summarised the findings of fact that he had made in his earlier judgment, and said in overall summary that he regarded the matters which he had found proved as "serious".
Following the three occasions of observed contact in early 2012, that contact was brought to an abrupt end by the decision and order of another district judge. Her decision at that point, at an interim hearing, appears to have been based upon the proposition that the child had been referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services because of behavioural or emotional difficulties following that contact. It later appears that any such referral had