Court protects child by extending orders until her 18th birthday
In private law children proceedings (i.e. proceedings not involving social services) the Family Court can make child arrangements orders, prohibited steps orders, and specific issue orders.
Child arrangements orders regulate with whom the child will live, and what contact anyone else should have with the child.
A prohibited steps order prohibits a person from taking a specified action in relation to the child, without the consent of the court.
And a specific issue order decides a specific issue in relation to the child, for example where the parents cannot agree.
However, the court cannot make any of these orders in relation to a child who has attained the age of sixteen, unless it is satisfied that the circumstances of the case are exceptional.
This is what happened in a recent case that took place in the Family Court at Oxford.
The case concerned a girl who at the date of the hearing was nearly 17 years old. Her parents had been in dispute about arrangements for her since she was about 18 months old.
Much of the responsibility for this sad state of affairs lay with the father, who had breached court orders (resulting in him receiving a suspended sentence of 12 weeks imprisonment), including taking and retaining his daughter outside of the time that been ordered. He had also told her that she needed to ‘step-up’, effectively to tell people that she wanted to spend time with him.
As a result of this behaviour the daughter, who had previously enjoyed spending time with her father, now indicated that she did not wish to have any direct contact with him.
The most recent orders made by the court (in 2023) were as follows:
1. For the child to live with her mother, and to only have indirect contact with her father by way of letters, gifts or cards no more than once per fortnight;
2. A Prohibited Steps Order preventing the father from meeting or attempting to meet his daughter or to have any communication with her, except as provided in the order;
3. An order preventing either party from making further applications without first obtaining the permission of the Court (this order was made until the child turned 16); and
4. A non-molestation order, also to last until the child turned 16, preventing the father from using or threatening violence against the child, from intimidating, harassing or pestering her, from telephoning, texting, emailing or otherwise contacting or attempting to contact her, from meeting or attempting to meet her, or having any communication with her except indirectly by way of letters, gifts or cards no more than once per fortnight.
The father’s behaviour continued, and in June last year the mother applied to have the orders extended until the child’s 18th birthday.
The judge found that the child did need the continued protection of these orders. Accordingly, in these exceptional circumstances, she ordered that they should continue until the child turns 18 (the non-molestation order was extended until she finishes her tertiary education).
You can read the full report of the case here.
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