Case No. ZC21P00327

15.My impression of both parents was that they were largely truthful witnesses. Where their recollections of events differed, I formed the view that this was generally as a result of their each having viewed events through the prism of their own objectives and desires rather than as a result of any deliberate intention to mislead the court. Both now clearly struggle to see matters from the other side’s perspective. On occasion I considered that both parents sought to exaggerate events or justify their own conduct or minimise the effect that their behaviour may have had on the other parent or upon their children and I refer to a number of specific instances of this later in this judgment.16.The parties’ evidence threw up a significant number of factual disputes. However, many of these, although at times featuring large in counsels’ cross-examination and submissions, are, at best, of marginal or tangential relevance to the issues that I have to determine and I have been able to leave many of these points unresolved. For example, it is clear that the parties have discussed the possibility of moving to the USA throughout their marriage, although precisely what was, or was not discussed or agreed at various points in time proved to be highly contentious. Whilst these discussions form the backdrop to the dispute that is now before me, I have taken the view that a detailed analysis of precisely what each parent had agreed to at specific points in time is of little assistance to resolving the question of whether it is now in the best interests of the children to move to the USA (in accordance with the mother’s proposals) or to remain in the UK (as sought by the father). 17.Where contemporaneous documents such as e-mails or other letters exist, I have usually felt able to rely upon these as a guide to the reliability of a party’s current recollection of events, although I recognise that in a number of instances the documents may themselves be self-serving, and I have approached these with a degree of caution.