Slade v Slade

Judgment

Lord Justice Wilson:

A wife (as I will describe her although strictly she is a former wife) appeals against an order for her committal to prison for contempt of court made by His Honour Judge Mitchell in the Nottingham County Court on 3 April 2009. The judge found that she had perpetrated six contempts of court; and the overall effect of the six sentences which he passed upon her in respect of them was that she be committed to prison for 21 months. Under s.14 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 the maximum term of imprisonment which he could have imposed upon her was two years; so he favoured an overall term only slightly shorter than the maximum. The applicant for the order for committal was the husband (as I will describe him) and he is the respondent to the appeal.

We conducted the hearing of the appeal on 17 June 2009 and, at its conclusion, we announced our decision, namely that it should be allowed and that the overall effect of the sentences passed by the judge upon the wife should be reduced from 21 months to six months. But we stated that we would put our reasons into written, reserved judgments; and Ward LJ has invited me to write the first.

The parties married in 1993; separated in 2006; and were divorced in 2007. Shortly prior to the marriage twins, a boy and a girl, were born to them and they are now aged 16. The son suffers an autistic spectrum disorder and attends a special school. At one stage following the separation he lived with the husband but early in 2008 he went to live with the wife and in effect became estranged from the husband. In the light of his disorder, he is less independent than most children aged 16; and, until the wife was taken to prison on 3 April 2009, she had continued to care for him.

On 11 March 2008, when a residence order referable to the boy was made in favour of the wife, both parents gave undertakings to the court. It was the wife’s undertaking of that date which was the foundation of the judge’s finding that in six respects she was in contempt of court. Her undertaking, duly signed, was that she would not, whether by herself or by instructing or encouraging any other person, harass or pester the husband and, specifically, communicate with him in any way save through solicitors. The undertaking recorded her acceptance that she should be bound by it until March 2009 and, although the absence of a specific date in March 2009 was the subject of consideration at another hearing, no part of this appeal t