The High Court ordered that a 12-year-old boy be returned to Northern Ireland, his habitual residence, but stayed the order for 14 days on condition that his father initiate proceedings there. The judge said she would revisit the stay on 14 October 2019. The judgment did not decide custody or the boy’s long-term living arrangements.
The case followed the boy’s failure to return to Northern Ireland after going to his father’s home in this jurisdiction for weekend access on 24 May 2019. His mother applied under the Hague Convention in June, and proceedings began by special summons on 1 July. The boy had lived with his mother in Northern Ireland since his parents separated. His father lived in this jurisdiction.
The judge rejected the father’s submissions that the boy’s habitual residence had changed or that his mother had acquiesced in his retention. She also found that the evidence did not establish the Convention’s grave-risk defence. Allegations by the boy that his mother and her partner had mistreated him were before the court through hearsay accounts; the judge said she was not making findings about whether the alleged treatment had occurred.
A psychologist’s assessment and a private conversation with the judge indicated that the boy firmly objected to returning to live with his mother. The judge found that he was sufficiently mature for his views to carry considerable weight and that they were his own. She considered those views, the assessment report, and his new school and sporting arrangements, alongside the Convention’s return policy and the role of the courts in the child’s habitual-residence jurisdiction.
The judge concluded that he should remain in this jurisdiction in the short term while proceedings were initiated in Northern Ireland. She chose a return order with a temporary stay rather than a non-return order. The Northern Ireland courts alone had jurisdiction to decide custody and welfare, the judgment said. The stay was intended to preserve the short-term arrangements while those courts began considering where the boy should live; it did not determine the eventual outcome.