No: FD25P00282 - [2025] EWHC 2144 (Fam)

B is a three year old boy. He was born in New Zealand in 2022 and lived there until 2 September 2024 when his mother, JV, (who is a British Citizen) brought him to the UK for a family wedding with the father’s consent. She (and B) did not return to New Zealand after the wedding and in May 2025 B’s father, PB, brought proceedings under the 1980 Hague Convention for the summary return of B to New Zealand. Those proceedings now come before me for determination.

The father has attended the final hearing remotely from New Zealand; the mother attended in person. The father was represented by Ms Geraldine More O’Ferrall of counsel; the mother by Ms Victoria Green. I am grateful to both counsel for their helpful skeleton arguments and oral submissions.

By way of background, the mother was born in the UK, and moved to New Zealand in 2010 for work. She lived in New Zealand from 2010 until September 2024. The father is a New Zealand national. The parents met in 2014; married in 2019 and B was born in 2022. B has dual British and New Zealand citizenship.

There are significant areas of factual disagreement in this case. The mother has made allegations of domestic violence and emotional abuse. These are contested by the father and I return to them in more detail below. A further point of factual dispute that is key to the issues that I have to decide, is the question of whether the father has acquiesced in B remaining in England and Wales. Both parents have filed lengthy witness statements on this issue (the father’s significantly exceeding the page limit set by the relevant practice direction) and the mother, in particular, relies on a series of text messages exchanged between the parties as well as transcripts of telephone conversations between her and the father which she recorded without his knowledge.

I permitted both parties to give oral evidence, limited to the issue of acquiescence.