[2025] EWHC 2637 (Fam)

The first of the two witnesses called by the father went by the name of ‘SB’ although I am not satisfied that this is her real name. She failed to produce a document to verify her identity. I am satisfied that she lied as to her inability to do so and that had she produced her ID card it would have revealed that she was somebody other than the person she claimed to be. In response to a question from Ms Ancliffe KC about her failure to confirm her identity, she said ‘I do not have a document which could proveI am [SB]’ (my emphasis). This, in my view, was just about the only aspect of her evidence which was true. She made the extraordinary claim that she did not know her date of birth, giving her year of birth as 1975. If true, this would mean she was aged 50 which is unlikely to be the case if, as she claims, she has children aged 3, 2 and 1. She also claimed to have witnessed the mother’s abuse of the child on specific dates when all parties accept that the child was not in the mother’s care. In my judgement, SB was either a friend or associate of the father or somebody paid by him. She was prevailed upon by him to give false evidence on his behalf.