- Our client approached us concerned that since the relationship breakdown the mother took their child out of nursery, moved out of the family residence, and did not know the whereabouts of the child.
- Our clients wife obtained immigration status by the party’s marriage so there was real concern from our client the wife may return to her home country with the child.
- Through our advice we arranged an urgent application to the court to prevent the mother taking the child from the UK.
- As a result of our advice and subsequent applications to the courts, the child was located and contact reinstated allowing our client to move forward in his life with a positive result.
Background
The Husband and Wife commenced their relationship in 2015 and married a year later in 2016. There was one child of the relationship and who was born shortly after their marriage. The Husband was a UK resident whilst the Wife obtained her UK immigration status by virtue of the party’s marriage and their subsequent child.
Conflict
Upon the party’s separation, the child of the family remained in the primary care of the Wife although had contact with the Husband regularly. Shortly after, the Wife’s behaviour started to deteriorate towards the Husband and contact was affected negatively as a result.
A month or so after separation, the Husband attended at the Wife’s property only to find it empty. The Wife had vacated the property, without notice to the Husband, and her whereabouts was unknown. Upon making enquiries with the child’s nursery, the Wife had given notice that they would no longer be attending.
The Husband was unable to locate the Wife and raised concerns that she may seek to return to her home country with their child. It was at this point that the Husband came to us for advice in relation to locating his child and regulating arrangements moving forward.
Resolution
Due to the urgent nature of the Husband’s circumstances and the uncertainty as to the child’s whereabouts, we assisted the Husband in making an urgent application to the Court for a Prohibited Steps Order and Child Arrangements Order. This action was taken to ensure that the Wife was prohibited from removing the child from the UK to ensure their safety and to start Child Arrangement Proceedings without delay with a view to reinstating contact.
Upon the Husband’s application to the Court, the Wife’s location was disclosed, and it was found that she was residing in another part of the UK. The proceedings were transferred to the Court local to the child and CAFCASS (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) were ordered to undertake their initial safeguarding checks and subsequent detailed report.
As a result of this urgent application to the Court, notwithstanding the Wife’s strong and unfounded objections, the Wife’s location was found and she was prohibited from relocating further and removing the child from the UK. Contact was reinstated with the Husband on an alternating weekly basis with school holidays split equally between the parties.
The Husband was extremely grateful for our assistance and advice during this extremely distressing and emotional time and we were just as pleased that we were able to obtain the desired outcome in line with his instructions.
