Implacable hostility to contact

In the matter of S (a child) [2010] EWCA Civ 325

In 1999 when his son was only a year old the father applied for contact. After a series of hearings lasting until January of this year on appeal the Court of Appeal held the judge had ‘wrestled with the impossibility of establishing what might be called normal contact between a growing boy and his absent father’. After reviewing the history of the matter the judge ordered residence should be transferred from the mother to the father. He ordered that the transfer should be effected by the Tipstaff in the event that the mother refused to effect the transfer herself. The Court of Appeal substituted for that provision a ‘stepping-stone’ foster placement of 21 days’ duration at the end of which the transfer would be completed. The provision for contact with the mother during this interim foster placement was limited to supervised phone calls of no more than five minutes. The court made clear that the mother was obliged to be supportive of the transfer order and that she risked immediate cessation of even this limited indirect contact if she expressed or implied negativity.