FD24P00616 - [2025] EWHC 985 (Fam)

Once the Mother and the children came to England on 14 August 2024, there was some initial communication between the Father and the Mother. The Father sent a message saying “E.joy the holidays”. I accept that that message was equivocal because it could be a reference to holidays in England, and so it could suggest the Father was expecting the Mother to return to Spain after a holiday in England. Equally, it could be a reference to the Mother and children enjoying the school holidays before EF started school.

Whilst the Mother was in England, the messages show that the Mother told the Father that she was looking for a property in England. He did not ask why she was doing that or appear to have a problem with the mother seeking to find a property in England during what was, on his case, only supposed to have been a 2 week holiday. The Mother’s explanation is that she was looking for a property to live in with the children. The Father gave an explanation after he had seen the text messages and the mother had highlighted this in her witness statement. He said that the Mother had told him that she would be looking for a property to rent so that she could get the rent paid by the government, and then she was intending to rent out the property to tenants and hence generate some income for herself after her return to Spain. He said that doing this was the Mother’s idea and that he was not party to the scheme but he said that sorting out a rental property was something she intended to do during the 2 week stay in England. There was thus a complete conflict of evidence about the reason that the Mother was looking for a property when she came to England in August 2024.

The Mother’s evidence is that, on about 21^th August, she became concerned because the children had told her that they did not want to see the Father again and she was troubled by that. There was a long call between them on that day. What then happened, according to the Mother, is that the children started to disclose to her that they had been subject to abuse from the Father and members of his family when they had been in the Father’s care in Spain.

The initial disclosure was that the Father was mean to them when they were at his house, but the children said that "XX and YY were worse". That is a reference to the Father’s sister and mother. Her case is that the children slowly came out with more things such as that AB’s female relative would hit them with a belt and that another relative had strangled EF and also thrown them both in the pool with their clothes on as punishment. She says that they said they were made to eat off of the floor, that their father would scream and shout at them and that he would hit them hard. She said that GH says that his father regularly slapped and hit him in the face whilst he was in his care, pushed him to the floor, locked him in a dark bathroom and made him take cold showers. He also says that his father would break his toys frequently, being most upset about a brand-new car that he had received for his birthday. She said that GH also disclosed that his paternal grandmother and paternal aunt had also slapped him and hit him with things.

The Mother said that EF disclosed that her father regularly slapped her in the face, one time hitting her hard enough that she got a bruised eye. She says that EF told her that the Father would make her eat food off the floor as a form of punishment. She says that when she would wet the bed, she would be made to sleep on a towel in a separate baby bed instead of being provided with night pants, which she said the Father said were a waste of money and that she should not need them. The mother’s evidence is that EF said she would wake up soaked sometimes, at which point her father would make her take a cold shower, sometimes even calling her ‘smelly’ or ‘wee wee face’ and laughing at her.

The Mother’s evidence is that she was shocked at these disclosures and she told the Father what the children were saying during the last part of August. The Father accepts that the Mother told him what she said the children were saying during phone calls at this time and says he was equally shocked. His position is that he completely denies that any of these matters were true. It is, however, of some importance for me to record the way that the Father reacted to the Mother’s allegations. He responded to these disclosures in a series of voicemail messages over the next month which are quite extraordinary in tone. In summary, in these messages he insulted the children, blamed the children for making up lies and threatened them with violence for having done so. I have transcripts of the messages and it is not necessary to set out all of the messages in this judgment however his messages included the following:

“As I said very clearly before, I’m not setting foot in England. My kids live in Spain and I’m Spanish. Going to England terrifies me…I’ll never set foot in England…never. But if this is what you’re telling me now when this is where the kids should be, well [the Mother] you’re gonna have no choice but to come here now and that’s it because I told you that I wanna talk to them face to face and after I’ve spoken to them face to face and the kids tell me what they said there, then you can automatically take them with you because I don’t want them with me”

“Yeah, it’s a big problem. Now it’s in your hands if you want to just take this for you alone or not and depend what you want to do it I will be there or not because really now I’m feeling fed up and tired and [start of translation] I don’t feel like it right now, seriously…I’d almost rather just forget about them, I’ve had enough…you change your mind, of course you change your mind…if you hadn’t accused me of that shit…while you go and lumber me with these kids who I gave everything I had to. Everything, everything…I raised them as best as I could. I gave them affection, I bought them the stuff they wanted, I spent my time on them. I took them all around the fucking city just for them to behave like that! Fucking shitface kids! Shit fucking kids! Ass-wipes, they’re ass-wipes! Seriously man, I reckon they’re not mine. Seriously, they disgust me!”

“Look, it makes me so angry to hear that. That girl’s got a serious problem, but apart from that, she’s making me despise her, seriously, I’m telling you. That girl’s a compulsive liar, either that or according to her, everyone else lies to her. Everyone, we’re all lying, right? You can think what you like, I don’t care about that, but you’ll regret it sooner or later. That girl´s got a serious problem. That girl’s got a SERIOUS problem, a serious serious problem”

“And it's more. If I see they hitting each other, I will call the cops. I will call the cops and say I'm sorry, I will call the cops, and say she hit he and I want to punch and if she he do the same. I don't care that they are childs. They now be like adults no they do that they do [unintelligible]. I promise you that all that they do bad, they going to know all that they do bad because if have to fight my proper childs, like my father do with me, I go to do it, I don't care”

In my judgment, it is not the least bit surprising to me that the Mother’s attitude towards the Father has hardened as a result of those messages. However, I note that the Father’s reaction at this time was very largely to blame the children for making up lies about what had happened during their time with him. At this stage he did not primarily appear to be saying that the children were saying these things because the Mother had persuaded them to tell lies about what had happened whilst the children were in his care.

The Mother has not rented a property for herself and the children. Instead, she has continued to live in her mother and step-father’s house and explains that, perhaps to everyone’s surprise, that arrangement is working well. The children have started at schools here and appear now to be settled and, as explained below, have had support from professionals arising out of their disclosures arising out of alleged abuse from the Father and members of his family. The Father has had very limited electronic contact with the children since they arrived in England in August 2024.

The Father approached the Spanish authorities who, in turn, instructed lawyers in England who issued these proceedings on 11 December 2024. I accept that he acted as promptly as he could have done in seeking a return order. The Mother defends these proceedings on multiple grounds as indicated above.