FD24P00857 - [2025] EWHC 835 (Fam)

The next issue is the children’s habitual residence. It is not necessary for me to consider this issue given the findings I have made of deception and the lack of any consent on the part of the father to the relocation temporary or otherwise. However, in case I am wrong about that, I have considered habitual residence on the basis I am wrong and there was a lawful consensual temporary move. On 1 May 2024 the children were not habitually resident in London having been there for only ten days. They had not integrated in any meaningful sense and further their move remained temporary. Furthermore, I do not find that even in November 2024 they were habitually resident in London. There is little or no evidence of what the mother told the children during this time about their reasons to be in London and whether or not it was temporary or permanent. The father’s clear position was that it was temporary. There is very little if any contemporaneous evidence from the mother’s outward expression to the family of whether the London stay was temporary or permanent. Looking at all the evidence from the children’s perspective their time in London was temporary. In the context of my finding that the move to London was always temporary because the family had planned to return to their home, where they were born and had grown up all their lives in Italy. They had retained their Italian home and health services. Their temporary presence in a rented home and nursery attendance, even with social roots did not displace their habitual residence in Italy, given their temporary status. I have surveyed all the evidence and Mr Anderson’s detailed submissions but cannot conclude their residence was stable given it was temporary with the father planning their return to their Italian home. Any degree of integration they had, and they had some, is outweighed by their deeper integration into Italy, given the temporary nature of their London stay. As the trial judge this is factual inquiry and I am clear not to overlay any legal gloss on my factual determinations.