Contact Between Children and Violent Parents

In Re L (A Child) (Contact: Domestic Violence) and Three Other Appeals (CA TLR 21 June)

On hearing a contact application in which allegations of domestic violence were established, the court should consider the conduct of both parties towards each other and towards the children, the effect on the children and on the residential parent and the motivation of the parent seeking contact, ensuring, as far as it could, that any risk of harm to the child was minimised and the safety of the child and the residential parent was secured. Decisions about contact should be child-centred and the purpose of the proposed contact should be abundantly clear, with the potential of benefiting the child in some way. There should be no automatic assumption that contact with a violent parent was in the child’s interest. If anything, the assumption should be in the opposite direction with the violent parent proving why he or she could offer something of benefit to the child. However, there should not be a presumption that, on proof of domestic violence, the offending parent had to surmount a prima facie barrier of no contact, it was one factor in a delicate balancing exercise of discretion. No two child cases were alike, but the court always had the duty to apply s1 of the Children Act 1989 that the welfare of the child was paramount and to take into account all relevant circumstances, including the advice of medical experts and, in due course, the impact of article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Those propositions were not in any way inconsistent with earlier decisions on contact.