No: FD24P00469 - [2025] EWHC 799 (Fam)

This is an application under the 1980 Hague Convention for the summary return of a child (D) to Australia.

D is currently 3 years old. He was born in Australia, but since February 2024 he has been living in the UK with his mother. The mother is British by birth but has lived in Australia since 2016 and has acquired Australian citizenship. The father is an Australian citizen, and I understand that D has dual British and Australian nationality.

In 2021 both parties were living in Australia. They met in March of that year and they had been in a relationship for only a few months when the mother became pregnant. The child, D, was born early in 2022. There are disputes about the nature of the relationship and the extent to which it was characterised by physical and emotional abuse of the mother by the father. I deal with these allegations in greater detail below.

However, matters came to a head at Christmas 2023 when the father threw a vacuum cleaner against a door in the presence of the mother and child. Again, the precise details of this incident are disputed. However, what is not in dispute is that on this occasion the Police were called and attended. Having spoken to the mother and attempted to speak to the father, what is described as a “Police Protection Notice” was issued against the father under the relevant State statute. From its terms I understand this notice to require the respondent (that is to say the father) to be of good behaviour and not commit domestic violence against the aggrieved party, and to require the respondent to attend a court hearing for the court to consider making a domestic violence order against the father.

This led to court proceedings before the relevant State court and on 14 February 2024, a Domestic Violence Protection Order (“DVPO”) was made under the relevant State statute against the father. The order was made by consent, and without the father making any admissions as to his conduct. The father was not legally represented on that occasion, although I understand that he had been represented an earlier hearing. The order requires the father to be of good behaviour and not commit domestic violence against both the mother and child, and he must not expose the child to domestic violence. The explanatory notes to the order make clear that the order is nationally recognised across Australia and that contravention will expose the father to penalty of up to three years imprisonment for the first offence and five years imprisonment for subsequent offences. The order lasts for a five year period.