Re K (Children) (Powers of the Family Court) [2024] EWCA Civ 2
11 January 2024
Judges: Sir Andrew McFarlane, Lord Justice Peter Jackson, Lord Justice Mark Warby
“In a fact-finding judgment in August 2021 the court made strong findings against the
father of alienating, controlling and coercive behaviour.” The children had been moved from the father into a placement with the maternal family. The older child was separately represented.
17 January 2024
Judge: Emma Arbuthnot
Experts: Darren Spooner, instructed by the court. Valerie Phipps, instructed by the mother.
The judge found that the mother had deliberately alienated the two children throughout their childhoods. She made an order that the younger child, aged 15, must continue to have contact with his father until his 16th birthday, but rejected the father’s application for enforced contact to continue until his 18th birthday.
19 January 2024
District Judge Olivia Murphy
Alienating behaviours. The mother lied that the child was her husband’s, not the man with whom she had a short-lived relationship while married to her husband.
DG v KB & Anor (Re EMP (A Child)) [2024] EWFC 12 (B)
30 January 2024
Judge: Clive Baker
Barrister for mother: Charlotte Proudman
Mother’s ordeal after judge dismisses rape allegation in error, Hannah Summers, The Bureau of investigative Journalism, 21 October 2023
Father stripped of parental responsibility after raping ex-partner, Hannah Summers, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 6 February 2024
17 January 2024
Judge: Mrs Justice Emma Arbuthnot
Re T (A CHILD) (No.2) (Transparency: Publication of the Party's Names) [2024] EWHC 161 (Fam)
2 February 2024
Judge: Mrs Justice Emma Arbuthnot
The father wanted the judgment to be published in unanonymised form when the children turned 18 but the judge ruled that the children’s privacy trumped his wish to set the record straight.
Re V and W (Children: Finding of Fact) [2023] EWFC 233
23 June 2023
Recorder Michael Veal ruled that the mother had coercively controlled the father.
Re V & Anor (Children: Welfare) [2024] EWFC 69 (B)
31 January 2024
On the advice of “an expert psychologist called Dr F” and “Ms G” who produced a child impact report on behalf of Cafcass, Recorder Michael Veal ordered a transfer of residence of the children from the mother to the father. The mother was given only indirect contact with her children plus an order barring further applications for three years.
TRC (Father) v NS (Mother) (Extensions of Time; Composite Hearings)[2024] EWHC 80 (Fam)
Judge: Natalie Lieven
The judge ruled that a separate fact finding hearing was unnecessary, and that it was disproportionate to require two contact supervisors to supervise contact with the father.
9 February 2024
Judge: Ros Carter
The judge ordered publication of a fact finding judgment from March 2021, which had found the mother had alienated the children against the father. The father wanted the judgment published in order to counter “a ‘movement’ on social media and elsewhere which seeks to argue that ‘alienating behaviours’ (to use the Cafcass description) do not occur, and that it must only be the behaviour of the non-resident parent that is to blame, suggesting for example that suggestion may be raised to deflect from them being abusive, or some other reason.” The mother, children and guardian opposed publication.
Re M v F & Anor [2024] EWFC (34 (B)
14 February 2024
Judge: Owens
In a fact-finding hearing, the judge found the mother’s allegations of child sexual abuse unproven and the father’s counter allegations of alienating behaviours unproven.
Re: A and B (Children: Expert's Reports) [2024] EWHC 948 (Fam)
24 March 2024
Judge: Nicholas Cusworth
Judge McPhee had acceded to the father’s demand for a parental alienation expert to be instructed.
“The joint instruction directed was of a Dr. Mark Hardiman. His CV had been identified by counsel for the children by the r.16.4 guardian immediately before the hearing, and was preferred to the father’s proposed expert. Unfortunately, the CV was only made available to the mother at the door of the court, and she says, and I accept, that she did not have the opportunity to consider it until later. The CV was evidently sent to the court and the parties at 2.38pm on the day of the hearing. In it, Dr. Hardiman describes his ‘main interest’ as in ‘the assessment of families affected by high conflict post separation parenting and/or allegations of parental alienation’.
A letter of instruction was attached to the order. Dr Hardiman was to receive a copy of the entire court bundle, including the court’s prior judgments, save for a ‘schedule of findings of fact’ that had been prepared. The principal fact-finding judgment which underlay the process had concluded with a judgment as long ago as 22 February 2021, within which Judge McPhee had himself incorporated earlier findings made by DJ Sethi. Further findings were then made in a judgment on 18 November 2021. A ‘Revised and Consolidated Schedule’ was then prepared by the children’s solicitor incorporating those various findings. Although there were a number of specific findings going back over a number of years, their essence was that the father had behaved in ways that were controlling, manipulative and aggressive towards the mother. Whilst the mother was not always beyond criticism, despite feeling embattled by the father’s behaviour, she had nevertheless continued to promote the children seeing their father.”
Mr Justice Nicholas Cusworth allowed the mother’s appeal, saying there was no need for a parental alienation assessment as Mcphee had previously concluded the mother was not alienating the children.
A Mother v A Father [2024] EWFC 123 (B)
Judge: Her Honour Katherine Suh
Expert: Dr C
Four year barring order against the mother making further applications for daughter to spend more time with her following a transfer of residence to the father ordered by District Judge Prevatt who found that mother had coached daughter to make false sexual abuse allegations.
GB (Parental Alienation: Factual Findings) [2024] EWFC 75 (B)
28 March 2024
Judge: His Honour Judge Middleton Roy
Expert: Dr Lopez
The mother was represented by Charlotte Proudman. The father was represented by Mr Hankinson through Dads Unlimited, a registered charity.
Costs order against the father to pay £50,000 legal costs of the mother.
Man who raped his wife tried to convince court he was victim of domestic abuse, Hannah Summers, The Oberver, 27 April 2024
Abusive father’s attempts to manipulate family courts, Hannah Summers, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 27 April 2024
This judgment followed an earlier judgment:
Re GB (Part 25 Application: Parental Alienation) [2023] EWFC 150
Charlotte Proudman successfully argued that a parental alienation expert should not have been instructed.
Judge Middleton-Roy anonymised the lower judge. Journalist Louise Tickle tweeted: “This is really irritating me. I am now going to have to make an an application to the judge who allowed this appeal to allow the name of the lower court judge to be published.”
UK mother accused of alienating children from father wins appeal over psychological assessment, Hannah Summers, The Observer, 9 September 2023
Parental Alienation in Re GB, Michelle Uppal, Family Law Week, 11 October 2023
Opinion Piece: Unprecedented Family Court Judgment – Views from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Family Law Week, 20 May 2024
Re GB (Parental Alienation: Welfare) [2024] EWFC 168 (B)
Re T (Local Authority Response to Findings of Abuse) [2024] EWFC 103 (B)
Tower Hamlets council criticised by judge for supporting 'rapist' father in domestic abuse case, Josh Salisbury, Evening Standard, 24 May 2024
Re S (A Child) & L (A Child) [2024] EWFC 108 (B)
B and K (Children: Contact: Section 91(14) Orders) [2024] EWFC 167
24 May 2024
Judge: Ruth Henke
K (Children: Alienating Behaviour) [2024] EWFC 216 (B)
Recorder Matthew O’Grady
F v M & Ors [2024] EWFC 239 (B)
22 August 2024
Judge: Owens
Father’s barrister: Charles Hale KC
Guardian’s barrister: Janet Bazley KC
The father admitted physical violence and abusive behaviour towards the mother, but the mother was criticised for “inappropriately” showing photos of her injuries to the children and because “She has not yet completed a recommended Mentalisation-based Approach for Parents in Court Proceedings course designed to help her protect the children from her negative views of F.” Presumably this course is offered by the Anna Freud Centre.
The judge agreed with the evidence of the Guardian, Michael, Nwoye, appointed by Children and Families Across Borders, who insisted that the children, who were clear that they did not want to see their father, would suffer emotional harm if they did not have a relationship with him. She also agreed with the Guardian that the children, a sixteen year old who had suffered a serious accident and a fifteen year old had reached an age where they were “less likely to be afraid of F losing his temper because they can protect themselves.”
Re KM and KR (Finding of Fact Hearing: Parental Alienation) [2024] EWFC 260 (B)
Judge: Mr Recorder Rowbotham in Milton Keynes
Expert: Dr Elena Arora
A Father v A Mother [2024] EWFC 360 (B)
16 July 2024
Judge: Elizabeth Walker
AB v CD & Anor [2024] EWHC 2956 (Fam)
6 August 2024
Judge: Sir Jonathan Cohen
Expert: Dr Khurram
Guardian: Alexa Munday
The mother appealed against Judge Shelton’s decision to transfer residence of her ten-year-old daughter to the father and paternal grandparents following a fact finding that the mother’s allegations against the father of child sexual abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour were unfounded. She was criticised for using a covert recording device on her daughter and for refusing to undergo a psychological assessment. Judge Cohen dismissed the mother’s appeal. The girl was transferred the following day. Permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal was refused.
Mother v Father [2024] EWFC 252 (B)
14 August 2024
Judge: Katherine Suh
Three children did not want to see their mother. The judge agreed that they should not be forced to do so.
F v M & Anor [2024] EWFC 314 (B)
23 September 2024
Judge: Denise Saunders
Father’s counsel: Janet Bazley KC and Ms Melissa Elsworth (instructed by Helen Fitzsimons Family Law)
Children’s guardian: Debbie Singleton of National Youth Advocacy Service
Experts: Hessel Willemsen and Trish Barry-Relph
The judge accepted Hessel Willemsen’s opinion that the 15 year old girl was not competent to instruct her own legal representative, and a barring order was made until her 18th birthday.
The police enforced the girl’s return to her father after she absconded to her mother.
Order extended to age 18 because the girl follows the mother’s “narrative”.
The judge ordered the mother to pay half the cost of both experts’ reports but declined to make her pay the costs of the daughter and father’s “trauma attachment therapy” with Trish Barry-Relph. She gave short shrift to the mother’s suggestion that the daughter could go to boarding school instead of living with her father.
TM v TF [2024] EWHC 2786 (Fam)
4 November 2024
Judge: Nicholas Cusworth
Re C (A Child) (No contact) [2024] EWFC 366 (B)
15 November 2024
Judge: District Judge Paul Bishop
Father is serving a 3 1/2 year prison sentence for coercive and controlling behaviour towards the mother, headbutting the mother, punching his 8 year old son and another child in the stomach, and making multiple graphic threats of physical and sexual violence and disfigurement towards the mother. He claimed to be a victim of parental alienation by the mother. The judge made a barring order until the boy is 18 and an order for no contact.
F v M & Anor (Rev1) [2024] EWHC 3190 (Fam)
10 December 2024
Judge: Anthony Hayden
Father appealed for a re-hearing because mother’s direct access barrister had previously discussed the case with him. Appeal allowed.