J-M (Child)
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE MAURICE KAY
- LORD JUSTICE LEWISON
Areas of Law
- Family Law
- Human Rights Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves a father's appeal regarding contact with his 14-year-old son, MX, who has been living with his mother and had no contact with him since 2010 due to alleged alienation. Various court orders led to the current appeal which questioned whether the cessation of direct contact outweighed the harms of pushing against the child’s wishes and if a further psychological report was necessary. The courts upheld the decision to refuse direct contact and limit it to indirect contact, supporting that there was no need for further psychological evaluation, as sufficient evidence was already provided by the guardian.
Lady Justice Black:
This appeal concerns the question of a father’s contact with his son, MX, who is 14 years old, having been born in November 1999. MX lives with his mother (M). The last time he saw his father (F) was in October 2010.
The matter has a long history. Proceedings began when MX was just a baby and there have been a number of orders since then. Prior to 2009, there was a period of about four years when there was no contact between F and MX. In F’s view, this was attributable to the malign intervention of M and her family who set out to alienate MX from him and to a conspiracy or conspiracies involving M’s lawyers, his own lawyers, and a district judge.
In 2005, MX was joined as a party with a children’s guardian to look after his interests. A psychologist was instructed to report on the issues. A consent order made in March 2009 provided for regular contact between MX and F. F would collect MX from the home in Wales where he lives with M and they would go together to F’s home in England. A further order was made in September 2010. It provided for a significant amount of staying contact. However, the contact planned for 27 December 2010 did not take place because there were weather-related transport difficulties and no contact took place thereafter.
F applied in February 2011 to enforce the September 2010 order. That application came before District Judge Regan in November 2012. On 7 December 2012, the district judge refused F’s application for direct contact, setting aside the existing contact order. He ordered that there be indirect contact by F sending MX a card and a present at Easter, Christmas and on MX’s birthday, and M ensuring that F was sent a recent photograph of MX twice a year.
F sought permission to appeal to the county court. On 8 April 2013, HHJ John granted permission “limited to the issue of whether the harm of cessation of direct contact in any form outweighs the harm arising out of attempting to initiate some contact against the child’s wishes” (appeal bundle, page 147). He heard and dismissed the appeal on 7 June 2013.
Judge John’s formulation of the issue for which he gave permission to appeal drew in five of the six grounds that F himself had originally presented with his Appellant’s Notice to the county court and subsequently also presented to this court. The sixth ground, which Judge John did not grant F permission to pursue, criticised the district judge for refusing an application for further expert evidence fr