A family court judge has agreed to the “exceptional course” of suspending all contact between a father and his child for three years to allow the mother time to recover from complex-post traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).
The Honourable Mr Justice Garrido handed down his judgment on Re. CX (No. 2) (Domestic abuse: No contact) remotely at the Royal Courts of Justice on 13th August.
The father, who is a member of the armed forces, had applied to impose reporting restrictions on earlier family proceedings, but this was denied after a petition by a freelance journalist.
CX (No 2) is an application for a variation of child arrangements concerning CX, a six-year-old girl.
The judge who originally made the access arrangement between CX and her father in September 2023 found the parents’ relationship was characterised by “extreme emotional and psychological abuse of the mother” perpetrated by the father over many years prior to their separation in 2020.
In 2023, the district judge ordered a gradually changing pattern of arrangements for the child to spend time with her father, firstly in a supervised setting, then ‘supported’, and then unsupervised The time slowly increased from two hours to six hours over a period of a further eight months.
CX’s mother, known in the court as AZ, asked the family court to order that her daughter have no contact, direct or indirect, with her father, known in proceedings as BY. BY opposed the applications, asking that CX maintain her relationship with him to the “greatest extent” possible.
During proceedings, Justice Garrido heard evidence of CX’s positive contact with her father in a supported setting, as well as extensive information from expert witnesses regarding the psychological impact of the abuse on AZ and her complex-PTSD diagnosis.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Garrido wrote: “In my judgment, the immediate cessation of contact, whilst painful in the short term, is the only way to secure CX’s medium and long term welfare, promoting the likelihood of two healthy parents able to meet her needs through her childhood, adolescence and beyond.”
The judge ordered CX be allowed to “spend time with her father on one further occasion” during which he will relay an “agreed narrative”. The mother is obliged to provide quarterly updates about CX to her father via her solicitor, including information about CX’s schooling. BY has put together a photograph album to give to CX during their next meeting.
Justice Garrido said: “Had there been a way of enabling mother’s recovery and maintaining a father/daughter relationship, it was submitted that the guardian would have alighted upon it. All realistic alternative options had already been tried including supervision, strict handover arrangements and recently, reduced frequency. It has eventually come down to a binary choice.”
He added: “I am sure that CX loves her parents and wishes to maintain her relationship with them both. She is enthusiastic about contact with her father and really enjoys spending time with him. Equally, there is no question in my mind that she feels happy and secure living with mother, and would not want that situation to change. I am sure that she is able to recognise in an age appropriate way that her mother is fundamental to her wellbeing. Were she able to understand the adult issues in the case, I have little doubt that she would wish her mother to be healthy so that she can give the best of herself in caring for her during her minority, with the linked prospect that such recovery could also lead to an enhanced and less restrictive relationship with her father.”
The judge described it as “an inevitability that a continuation of the current or any child arrangements will prevent [the] mother from recovering from the Complex-PTSD.”
Providing evidence, experts for the case suggested two to three years might give the mother time to recover enough that future access rights between CX and BY can considered by the court at a later date.
He added: “A continuation of the status quo or some other form of contact runs an appreciable risk of mother no longer being able to meet CX’s needs resulting in her suffering significant and unmanageable harm. A cessation of contact results in acute emotional harm for CX, albeit likely to be well managed by mother, with the risk of chronic harm and a permanent end to the father/daughter relationship.”
During the original welfare proceedings the mother alleged that she had been subjected to domestic abuse by the father. In a judgment delivered on 20 January 2022, the judge described the abuse perpetrated by the father: “In my view, it was a relationship characterised by extreme emotional and psychological abuse of the mother over many years. There were patterns of behaviour by the father that were deliberately intended to worsen her anxiety and intimidate her and make her feel subordinate. At numerous points in 2017, 2018 and 2019 Welfare were so concerned that they wanted to disclose to the father’s employer, but they did not have the mother’s consent to do so. Instead, they put in place safety plans and referred her to other support services.”
