S (A Child), Re

Judgment Approved

Lady Justice Black:

The appellant in this case is the mother of a boy, A, who was born in 2008 and is therefore 8 years old. The respondent is the child’s father, with whom the mother had a relatively short relationship which ended in August 2010. The appeal is in connection with findings of fact made by His Honour Judge Bromilow in respect of the conduct of the parents, in the context of private law proceedings between them in relation to A.

The judge was presented with a schedule of 14 allegations made by the mother against the father. At the conclusion of the hearing, on 7 March 2016, he found three of the allegations proved. The first two of these allegations were general, namely that the father had behaved in a controlling way towards the mother throughout their relationship and that he was violent towards her, this being exacerbated by his intake of alcohol. The third proved allegation related to a specific event when the father assaulted the mother, grabbing her around the neck and throwing her to the floor. The judge said of the third event that it was “a serious incident of violence because it took place in the presence of A.” The last item on the schedule was a recital of cautions and convictions of the father, which the father accepted was accurate and the judge treated as a matter of record.

The judge did not find the balance of the allegations (allegations 4 to 13) proved and the mother appealed against his determination in this respect. Allegations 4 to 12 on the schedule were of serious sexual violence, including rape, between 2008 and 2010. The judge not only did not find them proved, he found that “they had been made up by [the mother] in an effort to secure a more favourable outcome for her in this contact dispute” (§30). Allegation 13 was of an assault on A, said to have taken place “prior to July 2013”, when the father was alleged to have forcefully grabbed A’s forearms and hurt him.

The proceedings in relation to A have been on foot for a very long time. The initial step in the litigation was an application by the father for contact, issued in the family proceedings court in November 2010. It is not necessary to go into all the detail of what followed. The judge commented in his judgment (§3) that the case provided “a classic example of how not to proceed”. It may give an idea of how tortuous the litigation was, if I say that we had to abandon our attempt to establish a chronology of procedural events during th