The High Court has refused to order the return of a young child from Ireland to New Zealand after finding that a forced return created a grave risk of placing her in an intolerable situation.
The child, identified only as D.P., was born in Ireland on 20 April 2023. Her Irish mother and New Zealand father later lived with her in New Zealand. The mother brought the child to Ireland on or about 16 March 2025 without the father’s knowledge or permission, according to his evidence.
For the purposes of the Hague Convention proceedings, the mother accepted that the child had been habitually resident in New Zealand, that the father had custody rights and that he had been exercising them. The dispute therefore centred on two possible defences to the normal requirement that a wrongfully removed child be returned.
The first was consent. The mother relied on a handwritten agreement signed by both parents in June 2022 stating that if they had children they would move to Ireland before the eldest turned five. Mr Justice Barry O’Donnell held that this did not amount to clear consent to the unilateral move that occurred in March 2025. He found that the note contemplated a family move and that the mother herself believed the father would try to stop her leaving.
The second defence concerned grave risk. The court rejected allegations about the father’s drug and alcohol use and controlling behaviour as a sufficient basis for refusing return, saying those disputed matters could be addressed by the New Zealand courts.
However, independent psychiatrist Professor Patricia Casey diagnosed the mother with a mild-to-moderate depressive illness. She gave evidence that a forced return, loss of established social supports and ensuing family-law pressures created a real risk of relapse, likely at a more serious level, with consequences for the mother’s ability to care for the child.
Given the child’s young age and the mother’s role as primary carer, the judge found that this would expose the child to an intolerable situation. The father’s return application was therefore refused.