The judge, having previously ordered the child's return be suspended pending the mother obtaining a visa to re-enter Portugal; and ordering unsupervised contact between mother and child whilst the mother was in the UK, proposed to set aside the Hague Convention return order and formally dismiss the Hague Convention application following a ‘fundamental change in circumstances’ whereby the mother was living in the UK and the child was living separately in the UK with a paternal aunt and uncle.
The Family Division ruled that it was not in the child’s best interests for him to continue medical treatment in the form of mechanical ventilation and the ancillary care which accompanied the ventilation.