Father to write letter to daughter apologising for his behaviour
A father who was found to have traumatised his daughter by his violent and threatening behaviour has been denied direct contact with her, and required to write her a letter offering her an apology to her for his behaviour, and his love for the future.
The father and the mother are both Ukrainian. The child had been born in Ukraine in 2016. Divorce proceedings started in 2018, and in 2020 the mother came to this country to take up a job, bringing the child with her.
The father made an application for the child to be returned to Ukraine. However, the application was refused by the court in London, after Mr Justice Moor found that there was a grave risk that her return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm, or otherwise place her in an intolerable situation.
Mr Justice Moor made some very serious findings against the father, including: that he had threatened to shoot the mother; that he had threatened to let off a gas cannister in the mother’s face; and that he had acted towards the child in a way which would cause her harm, for example by using her as a shield to push police officers away, in the course of an incident that took place in 2019, when he had tried to abduct the child from her maternal grandparents’ home.
Notwithstanding these findings, the father then applied for a child arrangements order, seeking contact with the child.
The application was heard by Mr Justice Trowell, in the High Court in London. He found that the trauma that the father had caused to the child and the mother by his behaviour was such that there should be no direct contact between the father and the child. The very significant risk that the child and her mother would be re-traumatised took precedence over the general argument in favour of a child having a relationship with both parents.
The only ‘contact’ that the father should have was in the form of a letter to the child, offering her an apology to her for his behaviour, and his love for the future. The letter, a suggestion of the Cafcass officer, is to be given to the child when she starts asking about her father, with the hope that it would be a positive step in her thinking about her father.
You can read the full judgment in the case here.
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