The Family Court granted the mother's application for a specific issue order under ChA 1989, s 8 authorising her to accept a French inheritance and enter into a valid contract for sale of a French property on the child's behalf
The court held, balancing competing rights under art 8 and 10 of the ECHR, that the application to prohibit reporting of the names of either of the parents or of the deceased in the criminal proceedings had to be refused.
The Family Court found to the criminal standard that the husband, and the second and third respondents, were in breach of a number of court orders and imposed sanctions for breach of the relevant orders.
The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the father’s appeal against the decision of the Family Court. The totality of evidence before the recorder was plainly sufficient to support the recorder's findings and no party was unfairly disadvantaged by the process by which the findings were made.
The judge held that the defences of consent and acquiescence had not been made out; the child was a habitual resident in Russia at the date of wrongful retention and the trip to England was a temporary visit.