FD25P00086 - [2025] EWHC 2190 (Fam)

The father and mother met in Zimbabwe in 2013 and commenced cohabitation. The father alleges that they had a customary marriage under Zimbabwean law; the mother denies this. T was born on 25 February 2014. In 2017 the parties separated. The father says that the customary marriage came to an end at this point.

The mother had custody of T and the father has frequent contact with him. Between 2019 and 2021 the mother worked in South Africa, and T was looked after by the father. The mother regained custody when she returned in 2021.

On 3 January 2022 the Magistrates Court in a city in Zimbabwe was required to decide an application by the mother for custody of T. Observing that in the case of young children custody was usually given to the mother, and noting that the father was now married and living with his wife and other son, it held that it was in T’s best interests for custody to be awarded to the mother, with the father to be granted access to the child. It made the following Order:

“1.

Custody is hereby awarded to the applicant.

2.

The respondent shall have access to [T] every alternate weekend every alternate public holiday and one half of each school holiday.”

On 6 August 2022 the mother visited the local District Registry and re-registered T’s name as a Shona name, changed his date of birth, and omitted mention of the father on the second notice of birth form.

On 20 October 2022 the father had contact with T.

In the next few days (between 20 and 24 October 2022) the mother took T and travelled to the United Kingdom with him, going to stay with her sister, S, and her husband, R.

The father was telephoned on 24 October 2022 by T’s headmaster, who sought reasons why T had been taken out of school, and informed the father that the maternal grandmother had returned T’s books to the school stating that he will not be returning.

The father says he did not hear anything about them until 2024 when he received a voice note of T from the mother, in which T had an English accent. The father then discovered that one of the mother’s sisters, S, was living in England. In November 2024 the father ascertained the address of S and R, and the father’s brother visited them.

On 18 February 2025 the father travelled to England and visited the address of S and R. He saw T looking out of a window. The mother’s telephone number was provided, and a meeting was arranged. On 21 February 2025 the father met with the mother and T. On 22 February 2025 the father drove the mother to work and came back with T, who spent the next two nights with him at his hotel.

On 24 February 2025 the father and T attended the Zimbabwean embassy to make arrangements to take him back to Zimbabwe. However, the mother did not attend, and she told T’s school that he had been kidnapped by the father. The school called the police, who removed T from the father’s care.

On 14 April 2025 the father applied for a Return Order under the Hague Convention.

On 1 May 2025 the father made a without notice application for a Location Order which was granted by Harrison J and was executed the following day.

The mother was personally served with the application on 7 May 2025.

A directions hearing took place on 13 May 2025 before the President of the Family Division at which the Second and Third Respondents were joined.

A second directions hearing took place on 29 May 2025 before Mr. Justice Trowell.

A third directions hearing took place on 11 June 2025 before HHJ Vavrecka, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, at which T was joined as a party with the CAFCASS High Court team to appoint a Guardian to represent him. Permission was granted to the parties to instruct a single joint expert on Zimbabwean law to consider the positions of the mother and father.

The substantive hearing took place on 10 and 11 July 2025, with witness statements from the parties and oral evidence from the mother and father and from the Guardian and the single joint expert. There were further written submissions received on 14, 17, 21 and 24 July 2025.