FD25P00187 - [2025] EWHC 2629 (Fam)

Fecha: 17-Oct-2025

Conclusions

CONCLUSION

98.

This was, on any analysis, a most blatant act of child abduction by the paternal family, involving two premeditated abductions, first from Saudi Arabia and then from Brazil. There followed a calculated attempt by the paternal family to conceal the children from the mother and to clothe the paternal grandmother and the paternal aunt with a spurious parental authority. This barefaced instance of child abduction ultimately led the children to living in a single room in a hotel for asylum seekers for over a year, separated from both their parents in a country with which they had no connection and embroiled in asylum proceedings by adults who had no parental responsibility for them. Decisions with respect to medical treatment were also taken by adults without parental responsibility. The conduct of the father, the paternal grandmother and paternal aunt caused each of the children significant emotional harm. The matters relied on by the father and by the paternal grandmother and paternal aunt to make good an exception under Art 13(b) of the 1980 Hague Convention (and which form elements of the protection claims of the paternal grandmother rejected by the Secretary of State and now the subject of appeal) were themselves part of the calculated attempt to retain the children from their mother’s lawful care.

99.

For the reasons set out above, I make the following orders in respect of the mother’s application:

A summary return order under Art 12 of the 1980 Hague Convention in respect of Y and Z.

ii)

In circumstances where I am satisfied that the motivation for the paternal grandmother travelling to this jurisdiction, funded by the father and the paternal uncle, and for making claims they did in these proceedings in an effort to satisfy Art 13 of the 1980 Hague Convention, was to prevent the mother resuming lawful care of the children, I direct that a copy of this judgment be disclosed to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with permission to her to disclose it to the Upper Tribunal, and to the United States Embassy.

iii)

The paternal grandmother shall confirm within 7 days of the date of this judgment whether she is willing now to withdraw the protection claims made on behalf of the children and, if so, to confirm that she has done so.

iv)

The children Y and Z, shall remain in the care of their mother.

The father, paternal grandmother, paternal aunt and paternal are prohibited from removing Y and Z from the care of the mother, or from any person or organisation into whose care the mother has entrusted the children, including the children’s school.

vi)

These orders will remain in force until such time as the authorities in Brazil having jurisdiction have taken the measures required by the situation.

vii)

No order as to costs save for detailed assessment of the publicly funded costs.