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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> J (Children), Re [2004] EWCA Civ 1188 (19 August 2004) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2004/1188.html Cite as: [2004] EWCA Civ 1188 |
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IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM NORWICH COUNTY COURT
(MR JUSTICE JOHNSON)
Strand London, WC2 |
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B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE NEUBERGER
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J (CHILDREN) |
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Smith Bernal Wordwave Limited
190 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AG
Tel No: 020 7404 1400 Fax No: 020 7831 8838
Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
The Respondent Mother appeared on her own behalf
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Crown Copyright ©
"That opposition, as I find it to be, is reflected in the way that the father has taken the children to doctors, to the hospital, to the police station and has complained, on my arithmetic, to the local authority social workers on no less than thirty occasions in the eleven months of which I have a record."
"[As] at 4.8.03 [that was the day he saw Mrs J] it is my opinion that [Mrs J] has social anxiety and symptoms, not diagnostic, of obsessional compulsive disorder and symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder. Body dysmorphic disorder is a classification in the American Classification system. DSM IV and is compatible with the diagnosis in ICD 10 (the International Classification of Diseases and that used in Britain) of hypochondriacal disorder. It is excessive preoccupation and dissatisfaction with a perceived disfigurement giving rise to functional impairment. These symptoms do not meet criteria for diagnosis at the current time."
He goes on to say:
"[As] 4.8.03 [Mrs J] has maladaptive characterological traits which impact upon her social and relationship functioning as described in personality above and with which she is dissatisfied. This meets criteria ICD 10 and DSM IV for a personality disorder of mild severity."
He goes on to say:
"[Mrs J's] symptoms of obsessional compulsive disorder, body dysmorphic disorder and social anxiety do not warrant treatment at the current time. As regards her mild personality disorder, an appropriate treatment would be 12 sessions of cognitive behaviour therapy or cognitive analytical therapy with a Chartered Clinical Psychologist over six months at a cost of approximately £450. In my opinion this treatment has a low probability of reducing the expression of her character, given its duration and the fact that she has failed on at least three previous attempts at counselling with respect to aspects of her character.
In my opinion the main risk posed by [Mrs J] relates to her quick tempered and jealous character. [Mrs J] accepts the allegations I have listed above."
This is a reference to a series of allegations as to the way in which she was alleged by Mr J to have behaved towards him, which I need not read out but which are, for the record, contained in paragraph 64 of the psychiatrist's report. They are serious matters:
"These are allegations made over a two year relationship between [Mr and Mrs J] and given that their consequences are not inevitably harmful, it is my opinion that Mrs Jones could pose of direct risk to her children of low severity physical and emotional abuse of the children. There is, in my opinion, no significant evidence of other forms of significant risk to the children.
In my opinion there is a low probability that the treatment described above would ameliorate the expression of [Mrs J's] personality. In my opinion the most effective means of reducing the risk to the children would be by engagement through Child and Family Social Worker and Social Services of monitoring the children and practical support and problem solving for [Mrs J]."
"As [counsel] has said on the father's behalf his main concern is with the mother's ill health. It is the fact that she has been in and out of the hands of psychiatrists since she was eighteen years old and she suffers from a most unusual condition which leads her to believe, surprisingly having seen her, that she is ugly and does not like herself. I saw nothing about the mother in the witness box that led me to question her commitment in any way to the children. There were, during the course of the co-habitation, and indeed subsequently, occasions when the mother behaved strangely but those, I am satisfied, were isolated occasions and brought on by the pressure under which she has been living.
The practical situation is that the father has not worked since April 2002 and has made no financial contribution of any kind to the support of the mother and the children. Indeed, what he told Mrs Barker about his reaction to the mortgage difficulty that led to the repossession of the mother's home is to his considerable discredit. On the other side the mother is a working mother who has struggled to maintain a home for herself and the children without, as I have said, any financial support from the father. It has been stressful. She has some, as I think, very limited mental problems. I question whether they are as extensive as one might have concluded on first reading Doctor Crook's report but the fact of the matter is that she has been subjected to terrible pressure. Thirty complaints to the social workers within a year, visits to the police station, visits by the police, her situation has been absolutely intolerable and I agree with Mr McLoughlin's submission that it is very much to her credit that she has emerged as well as she has.
Of course there have been moments when she has behaved wrongly. I take, simply by way of example, the endeavour of Mrs Barker to see G on his own. The mother resisted that and indeed, even when she was persuaded that G should see Mrs Barker on his own, she wanted the interview to take place in her house for reasons which do not require comment and indeed wanted to be the one who collected G from school to go to visit Mrs Barker. One finds in Mrs Barker's report young G saying that his stepfather had some bad points but he had some good points too but by the time mother had had a word with G, G realised that it was best for him and it would be less trouble for him if he said simply that he did not want to see his stepfather. It is obvious that underlying that statement is a wish to see his stepfather. His stepfather is the only father figure in his life. The only other man in his life is his paternal grandfather who lives down in Dagenham and to whom very naturally G is very close. It is a great pity that G is not to be allowed to see his stepfather. The mother thinks that she can meet all the needs of a boy, here a thirteen year old boy, but the obvious experience of life is that she cannot and it will be very much to G's disadvantage that he will apparently grow up without the benefit of contact with his stepfather."
"My view is that there should be three periods of overnight contact in every four weeks from nine a.m. or earlier on one day until six p.m. on the following day. I appreciate that the journey to Burgess Hill takes perhaps four hours and that is an undesirable journey to be undertaking on consecutive days for a child of two but many children, particularly those living in London, are accustomed to that at weekends. Here again is a disadvantage to C which has to be borne by him in order to counter the other disadvantages mentioned. There was an discussion as to whether the periods of overnight contact should be at weekends or midweek. The father is not working, the mother is, so that weekend contact works to the detriment of the mother without any consequent disadvantage to the father. I have decided that two of the overnight occasions shall be over the week, one shall be over a weekend. There is a disadvantage to C in having the contact midweek because he will lose the advantage of the contact with other children at nursery school, which is particularly important for a child being brought up by a single parent, but there again that is a disadvantage which has to be put in the balance. Mrs Barker made a suggestion which is eminently sensible but which I have rejected. It was that there should be a more gradual escalation to periods of overnight contact. In the ordinary way I would agree strongly but that, it seems to me, would involve the introduction of an element of commonsense into the contact arrangements which I think is difficult to expect. The sooner the present wholly unsatisfactory arrangements are brought to an end the better for the parents and the better for C."
ORDER: Application for permission to appeal refused.