Ulatowski v Gorzow WLKP Circuit Court, Poland

J U D G M E N T

MR JUSTICE BLAKE: This is an appeal against a decision of District Judge Coleman given on 27 June 2014 ordering the Appellant's return to Poland on an accusation European Arrest Warrant containing two counts.

There are two grounds of appeal developed. Ground 1 is that the European Arrest Warrant fails to contain the necessary particulars to satisfy the requirements of section 2(4) of the Extradition Act 2003 .

The second was that the judge was wrong to conclude that extradition was justified and proportionate, having regard to the adverse impact on the two children of the Appellant, now aged 14 and 15, of whom he is the principal carer.

In respect of the second ground there have been material developments since the judge made his decision. At that time, the matter had been properly investigated by the local authority who were alerted to a child at potential risk issue in October 2013 when the Appellant was first arrested on the European Arrest Warrant.

The children had come across to the United Kingdom in 2012 and were attending school at Wellingborough. They originally lived alone with their father. At some stage the Appellant moved in with another partner, whom he had met and formed a relationship with in England, and that other partner gave birth to his child in September 2013. It seemed likely that the partner would agree to be the principal carer of all three children in the event of the Appellant's extradition to Poland.

Secondly, there was a detailed report from a social worker, Jemma Ginns, of the Wellingborough Child in Need team who had recommended that in the event that the present partner would not look after the Appellant's two children, the children would be fostered with a family in Wellingborough, kept together and enabled to continue their education and their cultural nexus to Wellingborough. The option of returning the children to be with their Polish mother, who was still resident in Poland, was not considered suitable since, first, there was no accommodation for them there; and, secondly, the children had expressed a strong wish not to return to the mother.

The development since the hearing has been that the present partner has now told Social Services in July and this court in a witness statement dated September 2014 that she now has decided she could not look after the 14 and 15-year old as well as her young son. Secondly, it transpires that the panel of Wellingborough Social Services who had received the report