Case No. NE24C50736 - [2025] EWHC 1767 (Fam)

Fecha: 11-Jul-2025

The Legal Framework

The Legal Framework

65.

The Court’s paramount concern is the welfare of each child and the Court must apply the principles set out in the Children Act 1989 (CA 1989) s1 and have regard to the welfare checklist as s1(3). I should consider all the evidence and analyse the realistic options side by side before making my determinations.

66.

I am not engaged in a separate finding of fact hearing but insofar as I seek to resolve disputed facts I remind myself that the burden of proof is on the party making an allegation and that the standard of proof is the balance of probabilities. The Court must take into account all the evidence and consider each piece of evidence in the context of all the other evidence. As Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, President observed in Re T [2004] EWCA Civ.

558, [2004] 2 FLR 838 at paragraph 33:

“Evidence cannot be evaluated and assessed in separate compartments. A judge in these difficult cases must have regard to the relevance of each piece of evidence to the other evidence and to exercise an overview of the totality of the evidence in order to come to the conclusion of whether the case put forward by the Local Authority has been made out to the appropriate standard of proof.”

67.

It is not uncommon for witnesses in these cases to tell lies in the course of the investigation and the hearing. The Court must be careful to bear in mind that a witness may lie for various reasons, such as shame, misplaced loyalty, panic, fear, distress and the fact that the witness has lied about some matters does not mean that he or she has lied about everything: see R v Lucas [1981] QB 720. In the Court of Appeal judgment in A, B, and C (Children) [2021] EWCA 451, Macur LJ advised at [57],

“I venture to suggest that it would be good practice when the tribunal is invited to proceed on the basis, or itself determines, that such a direction is called for, to seek Counsel’s submissions to identify: (i) the deliberate lie(s) upon which they seek to rely; (ii) the significant issue to which it/they relate(s), and (iii) on what basis it can be determined that the only explanation for the lie(s) is guilt. The principles of the direction will remain the same, but they must be tailored to the facts and circumstances of the witness before the court.”

68.

Put bluntly, Mr Rowlands for the Local Authority submitted that the Mother was dishonest and manipulative whenever she felt the need to be in order to get her own way. That included dishonesty about aspects of her relationship with the Father and her relationship with Mr V, the abduction, her misrepresentations to immigration officers, police officers and social workers. There have been too many lies to list. They are designed to conceal the truth so that the Mother can achieve her goal of having the children returned to her care.