Domestic violence and contact

In re H (a child) [2005] EWCA Civ 1404

In setting aside an order allowing a father contact with his child, the Court of Appeal castigated the judge for operating with an imperfect recollection of findings of fact in a previous hearing, expressing distorted views not based on the evidence before him, failing to direct himself in relation to the principles set out in Re L (a child) [2001] 2 WLR 339 and ignoring the guidelines on contact cases prepared by the Children Act Sub-Committee. In re L was a seminal decision and it was wholly unacceptable for the judge to make only one incomplete and highly selective reference to it in his fact-finding judgment and to make no reference to it in his second judgment. The judge’s failure to have regard to In re L was responsible for his minimisation of the serious assault on the mother when making the contact order. As to the guidelines of the Children Act Sub-Committee, they were breached in a number of respects. In particular, the judge took the view that the father’s violence was irrelevant. He simply did not apply his mind to the father’s capacity to appreciate the effect of his violence on the mother and the child.