Submissions
40.I need not repeat the detailed and helpful submissions made in relation to the evidence but the final positions of the parties should be recorded. The Local Authority invites the court to make the findings sought in its Amended Schedule of Allegations. The Children’s Guardian did not adopt any position in relation to the allegations before the hearing but by the close of the evidence, for the reasons ably articulated by Mr Hargan, the Children’s Guardian had firmly adopted the Local Authority’s position. R, who was separately represented, had not wished the finding of fact hearing to take place but maintained that her allegations were true. T submitted that whilst he accepted an element of truth in one of the allegations - the allegation that he kissed R on the neck and lips – the remainder of the allegations were fabricated. His position was not that R had been mistaken, or had retrospectively misinterpreted innocent childhood behaviour, but that she had made up the allegations. 41.The mother submitted that she and the father were placed in an invidious position when one child made allegations to the police about another child, but that they had engaged with the authorities and the court should accept that if, which the mother denies, R had made the allegations to her, she would have talked to the father and they would have alerted the authorities themselves. It was suggested on her behalf that R had given inconsistent evidence about her mother’s reaction to being told by R of the allegations in 2020 – on one account her mother was sympathetically hugging R, on another she was calling her “crazy” and saying that she would destroy the family.42.Ms Sanders, for the father, said that he was neutral in relation to whether R’s allegations were true - he left that decision to the court - but he was adamant that no-one had told him about the allegations before R spoke to her school and the police on 7 June 2021. Had R made the allegations to the mother as she claimed, then the mother would certainly have told the father and he would have addressed them directly with R and T. There would have been ructions within the family but, as it was, there was calm because R did not make the allegations to family members.