Contact with Violent Father

Re E-S (Children) (CLW 27 October CA)

Following the break-up of the family at the instigation of the mother, the father had issued violent threats to the mother and provoked her and the children seeking refuge in another town and to change her name and those of the children. The court welfare officer recommended that in order for the father to be allowed contact he must first withdraw the threats previously issued and that the court could then consider the father’s application for an order for indirect contact supported by a family assistance order. The judge rejected that submission and refused contact in the interests of the children. Allowing the father’s appeal the Court of Appeal found that the judge had erred in failing to consider a family assistance order and the withdrawal of the threats as a means of facilitating the development of a relationship between the father and the children, particularly since such an order imposed no risk to the children.