Northamptonshire County Council v The Mother & Ors (Rev 1)

This judgment should be read in conjunction with my full judgment in this matter [2016] EWFC 37.

In my view, and this is addressing B and Father of B, none of the recitals should appear in the order. Why is that? That is because when I considered this case and gave my judgment I came to the very clear view B that Father of B, your dad, was not in any way at fault or in any way to blame for these proceedings having been started in this court and as you know, B, I put it down, I am afraid, to your mother.

I also found that your father is an exemplary and very good father who cares very much about your welfare and what is best for you, and so I concluded that there was no legal basis for the local authority to be involved in your life and I decided that it was right and in your best interest that it is a matter for you and your father to resolve, as any fifteen year old lad would with his dad, and I am still of that view. It is very important that the two of you talk frankly and openly about what you want to happen and about what your father wants to happen. There has to be an acceptance and an understanding of the reality on the ground of what happens when there is, if there is, a stand-off between what you want to happen and what your father wants to happen.

It is obviously a very big decision for you to go to Australia and start a new life there and I completely understand that and I completely understand, B, that you will have all sorts of worries and fears and concerns about leaving your life here and starting a new life in Australia. But all I can say to you is that I am satisfied that your father, your dad, wants the very best for you and I am satisfied that it really is for the two of you to work out when is the time that you go to Australia.

I should also tell you B, and I know that it has probably already been explained to you, that I express very real concern about the adverse impact on you of your mother’s conduct, and so I was very concerned to hear that she had told you, and I think your sister, that she had recently taken an overdose, and that came in the midst of the court hearing before me. I was very concerned that that was putting you under, as I am sure it did, immense pressure because, as you have told me, you are very close to your mother and you feel very responsible to look after her. What exercised me in coming to the decision that I did was that you need to be protected from that pressure which I fear and which I said I feared would only worsen as the time came when she was sentenced. I think it probable, although I am obviously not the criminal judge and I do not sit in crime, but it is almost inevitable that she will receive a custodial sentence and will be imprisoned.

So I would simply ask Father of B, as I know he will, to take fully into account your complex feelings about what is going to be the next step and importantly when, but I am sure that between the two of you, if you talk about it and if you are open about it and that there is no misunderstanding about what I am saying, there is no misunderstanding about what should happen, the two of you will be able to resolve your difficulties and will come to a decision which you can both live with. Do you understand B?

I am afraid that the position that you are in is a difficult one and frankly there is little that I can do to assist. The person who can, and who rightly should, is your father. Do you understand? Is there anything you want to say?

B: No, I’m fine thank you.

MR JUSTICE KEEHAN: Are you okay?

B: Yes.

MR JUSTICE KEEHAN: Thank you very much for coming, I am very pleased to see you once again. Thank you very much, father of B and wife, for making yourselves available. I am most grateful.