We assisted Mrs J, a Russian national who had settled to the UK with her son, A, after experiencing domestic abuse in Russia. Prior to leaving, she had suffered controlling and coercive behaviour and emotional abuse. There had been numerous proceedings in Russia which had found that A’s best interests were promoted in her care, with very limited contact with the father ordered. Despite this, the father abducted A from the mother and took him through a number of countries before being intercepted by Interpol where the child was returned to Russia. Upon his return, A had very unwell and was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Consequently, the mother sought to leave Russia with A, with permission granted by the Russian courts to do so.
Mrs J settled in the UK and remarried. After some time, the father applied to the High Court for the return of A to his care in Russia under the Hague Convention. With Cafcass’s involvement and discussions with A who expressed his desire to not have contact with his father and to remain in the UK, the father withdrew his application. The in the final order of the court, it was recorded that the father therefore agreed that A should remain in the UK.
Nonetheless, a few months later, the father applied once again to the High Court for return of A, omitting reference to the previous set of proceedings concluded a few months prior.
Mrs J sought our assistance. We advised and assisted Mrs J to prepare for the hearing by preparing a position statement to bring to the attention of the court the previous proceedings. In addition, we assisted her to persuade the court that this was not a matter that required the jurisdiction of the High Court and was a Children Act matter.
The court agreed and identified that this was essentially a contact dispute in light of the previous proceedings and the matter was transferred to Mrs J’s local family court to be heard by a senior judge. Mrs J’s allegations of abuse and control had never been tested in the UK courts; we therefore further assisted her to bring these allegations to the attention of the court and Cafcass. We helped to identify safe contact proposals as well as the fact that without additional orders in favour of Mrs J, the father would continue to have control over the lives of her and A.
By way of final order, the court made specific issue orders for Mrs J to hold all passport and travel documents for A, a lives with order for A stating her permission to remove A from the UK for a period of up to a month without the father’s consent and a prohibited steps order to prevent the removal of A from her care by the father.