![FD25P00286 - [2025] EWHC 2175 (Fam)](https://backend.juristeca.com/files/emisores/logo_0FrGysm.png){kind=logo}
C The parties’ positions
C The parties’ positions
The mother’s position
The mother’s case on Art 13 (b) is founded on four strands:
The exposure of Q to domestic abuse in the form of the father’s ongoing coercive and controlling behaviour.
The risk of separation related both to the father’s application to the Portuguese court for residence, and the criminal complaint.
The invidious situation the mother would be placed in being completely financially dependent on the father, the confidence the court can have in his compliance with requirements and the psychological impact on the mother
The risks to the mother’s mental health as a consequence of the father’s behaviour and her feeling that she is not protected by the Portuguese system because she is not Portuguese.
The mother is clear that the Art 13 (b) threshold is crossed. Her primary position is that protective measures are unable to ameliorate the risks such that Q would not be exposed to a grave risk within the scope of Art 13(b).
Her very much secondary position is that, if a return were ordered, the following protective measures would be required:
EUR 3,000 pcm paid directly to her on 1st each month for a 2-bedroom property. She produced particulars of flats in a different town, some four hours from town X.
EUR 2,700 pcm by way of maintenance to include €1,000 towards nursery, which, all agreed, Q does not currently attend. So that left €1,750 plus rent.
EUR 2,000 pcm by way of a “fighting fund” towards legal fees in Portugal, based on an estimation that the relocation proceedings will cost around EUR 25,000.
The use of a car together with all associated costs being met.
Private health care insurance for both the mother and Q.
A mobile phone contract.
A standard non-prosecution undertaking and evidence that all criminal complaints have been withdrawn prior to any return.
Not to attend the mother’s airport or her address.
A standard non-molestation undertaking (per her counsel’s note).
A standard non-separation undertaking not to remove Q from her care save for agreed or court ordered contact.
The mother seeks that these protective measures last until the determination of the cross applications or for 12 months a period of time that would allow the mother to “get back on her feet”.
The father’s position
The father seeks an immediate return of Q to Portugal. He disputes that there is a grave risk that Q’s return would expose her to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place her in an intolerable situation. He accepts that the parties had a number of arguments. He would like Q to be returned to town X: he owns two properties there and has quite a large number of English relatives there.
As the proceedings have progressed he has proposed an increasing range of protective measures. At court these were finalised. He offered the following
To make funds available for alternative accommodation of €1,500 a month. His preference would be for the mother to live in the family home and for him to vacate or alternatively for the mother to live in rented accommodation in X until the current tenants of his rented property vacate, or as a final option, that he rent a property for her. He asserts that the location the mother has selected would impede his contact with Q.
Maintenance at €1,000 a month. He increased that in the hearing to €1,500 a month. He will stop paying €500 a month towards the mother’s other child in Brazil
The father offered to pay 2 months of rent and maintenance up front.
The father said that he could not afford the sums that the mother was seeking.
He did not offer to pay anything towards a fighting fund and, it appears, that public funding may be available to the mother.
He agreed to the protective measure that the mother sought in relation to:
Use of a car with all costs covered.
Provide medical insurance for Q and the mother.
Pay for the mother’s mobile.
Not to initiate or pursue criminal proceedings and produce evidence that a complaint has been withdrawn prior to return.
Not to attend at the airport nor the mother’s address nor to contact the mother save in respect of contact arrangements or issues regarding Q’s welfare via the parenting app.
An undertaking not to intimidate, use or threaten violence against the mother.
Not to remove Q from the mother’s care save for agreed or court ordered contact.
He proposes that these protective measures will last until the Portuguese court is seized of the matter. The withdrawal of criminal proceedings and the promise not to take any further criminal proceedings will be indefinite.