The High Court has ordered a six-year-old boy to return to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales after finding that he was wrongfully brought to Ireland. The judge said the return should take place in his mother’s care, pending a further order by the Family Court at Taunton.
The case was brought by the child’s father under the Hague Convention on international child abduction. The mother opposed the application, arguing that the father was not exercising his custody rights when the child was taken to Ireland and that returning him would expose him to a grave risk of harm. She also relied on the child’s objection to returning.
The judge found that the father was exercising his custody rights. Although he had not seen the child since 2013, the judge accepted that he wished to maintain contact and had engaged in court proceedings brought by the child’s paternal grandparents to establish contact. The child was taken to Ireland on 14 April 2015, without notice to the English court or the father, one week before a scheduled fact-finding hearing concerning allegations raised by the mother.
The court did not decide whether the allegations of abuse against the father or grandparents were true. The judge said those issues were for the English courts, which were already considering the family’s circumstances. He was not satisfied that the evidence established a grave risk of harm, and said any risk could be addressed by the English court.
A psychologist’s assessment found that the child objected to returning and was expressing his own views. At the time of assessment he was six years and six months old. He said he wanted to remain in Ireland with his mother, stepfather and sisters. The judge considered it appropriate to take his views into account, but decided they did not justify refusing the return application.
An English court order had directed that the child live with his paternal grandparents on return. The High Court judge said that would significantly disrupt the child’s life and preferred a return in his mother’s care. The father undertook to apply to the Taunton Family Court to vary its wardship order so the child could return to England with his mother pending further order.
The judge granted the return application and said he would hear counsel on the appropriate form of the order. The judgment did not determine the underlying custody or contact dispute, which remained for the English court.