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August 22, 2017
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
LORD JUSTICE MOYLAN:
These proceedings concern a very young child who is now aged 16 months. The mother appeals from Moor J’s order of 4 July 2017 dismissing her application to vary a contact order made by Peter Jackson J on 20 January 2017.
At this hearing the mother has been represented by newly instructed counsel, Mr Devereux QC. The father has been represented, as I understand it pro bono , by the same counsel who appeared at the hearing before Moor J, namely Mr Jarman. I am grateful to both of them for their succinct but comprehensive submissions.
The background can be summarised briefly. The father is a national of St Lucia; the mother is a national of the United Kingdom and St Lucia. They met in St Lucia and commenced a relationship. They started living together in St Lucia in March 2014. Their daughter, who I will call A, was born in England in early 2016.
The mother returned to St Lucia when A was one month old. The parents separated in June 2016. The mother came to England for a holiday in August 2016 and in October 2016 solicitors acting for the mother informed the father that they would not be returning to St Lucia.
The father started wardship proceedings in England seeking the summary return of A to St Lucia. Those proceedings were determined by Peter Jackson J’s order of 20 January 2017 which was an order substantially made by consent. Both parties were represented by counsel at that hearing.
Prior to the hearing, expert evidence had been obtained from a St Lucian lawyer which was to the effect, in summary, that the father had no parental rights and no right to make any application in respect of A under St Lucian law. The mother was the sole custodian with exclusive parental authority, including the unilateral right to relocate with A to England without any court intervention.
The order of 20 January provides that A will live with her mother. Although not expressly stated, this was clearly on the basis that they would continue to live in England. Extensive contact arrangements were also included in the order. The father was to have contact in England in March 2017, in St Lucia in May 2017, in England in September 2017 and in St Lucia again in December 2017. There are more general provisions dealing with contact for 2018 and in subsequent years.
The contact provisions as ordered contain no conditions save that contact is initially to take place in the presence of one of the maternal grandparents. In addition, however, the order contain
AI Generated Summary
This appeal concerns a 16‑month‑old child, A, whose parents lived together in St Lucia and whose mother established residence with A in England after their separation. Following wardship proceedings, a consent order made by Peter Jackson J on 20 January 2017 provided that A live with her mother in England and set a structured contact schedule across England and St Lucia, supported by the maternal grandfather’s funding and the father’s undertakings. When contact in St Lucia did not occur in May, the mother sought to vary the order to England‑only contact, alleging non‑compliance with a notarised undertaking in St Lucia and the withdrawal of grandparental support. At a one‑hour hearing, Moor J summarily dismissed the application. On appeal, applying Re C and Re B, Moylan LJ held the judge acted within his broad case management discretion and that the matters advanced were insufficient to warrant variation or further investigation. The appeal was dismissed; McFarlane LJ agreed.