A REVIEW of British family law is under way after a 12-year-old boy involved in one of the countrys longest legal disputes was allowed to live with his mother, reversing an earlier High Court ruling that he should live with his father.
Judge Clifford Bellamy granted the child’s wish to live with his mum in order to protect the boy’s mental health – but said the 11-year-long case raised serious questions about children who had become alienated from a parent and did not know their own feelings.
Judge Bellamy criticised the mother for repeatedly denying the boy the opportunity to see his “wholly deserving” father. The mother opposed and undermined all efforts at contact, the judge said.
The failure of the parents, who split before the boy was born, to agree on regular meetings led the court to rule in January this year that the boy should live solely with his father – despite not having seen him in four years.
This was later deemed so traumatic for the boy social workers pleaded with the father to give up efforts to be reunited with his son, to which he “reluctantly agreed”.
The government is currently conducting a review of family law – one part of which is whether fathers are being treated fairly in the courts when relationships break down.
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