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	England and Wales County Court (Family)
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales County Court (Family) >> X and Y (Minors), Re [2009] EWCC 2 (Fam) (2009) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCC/Fam/2009/2.html Cite as: [2009] EWCC 2 (Fam)

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IN THE COUNTY COURT

1. In December 2008 a 15 year old girl, born in the Asian subcontinent but who came to the U.K. a few years ago to further her education, made a complaint to her schoolteacher that she believed she had been married against her will in a ceremony conducted over the telephone with a man from her home country. She also alleged that she had been assaulted in the home by her elder half-brother and that she and her younger sister were made to 'slave' in the home. This account was corroborated by her sister who is a year younger.
2. The schoolteacher alerted social services who approached the girls' father with their account. He denied the allegations but, in the light of them, refused to have the girls return home. The girls' mother was in their country of origin and social services were unable to contact her at short notice. The only person with parental responsibility was their father and he agreed for the girls to be accommodated in foster care as children in need.
3. The police were also notified and an officer well experienced in cases of alleged forced marriage and honour based violence investigated and recommended that the girls be represented in an application for orders under the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 which had just come into force.
4. To provide the girls with legal protection and for decisions to be made for their welfare, wardship proceedings were issued by solicitors acting for the girls. In the course of those proceedings the girls' father was assessed by a clinical forensic psychologist who was of the opinion that the Father lacked litigation capacity. The Official Solicitor agreed to act on his behalf.
5. Shortly after this the Local Authority decided to issue care proceedings which were transferred to the same court. This appeared to be a sensible way forward as the girls were in the care of the Local Authority in any event and they and their family were content with the arrangement. The allegations put forward as potentially satisfying the threshold requirement of 'significant harm' in s 31(2) of the Children Act 1989 were in essence the allegations described briefly in paragraph 1 above. A 'threshold' document was prepared and then amended. It took some time to trace the mother and obtain her instructions and the half brother was invited to intervene in the proceedings to defend himself. The responses of the Father and half brother were complete denials and suggestions that the girls had made up the allegations for ulterior motives. The Official Solicitor on the Father's behalf disputed that an interim care order was justified on the facts.
6. Eventually the case was listed for a 2 day hearing to determine whether an interim care order should be made. Evidence was filed late by the Local Authority with the result that the Father and Intervener filed their evidence on the morning of the hearing. The Intervener had been unable to secure legal representation. An issue arose whether the girls should be obliged to give evidence, even over a videolink. If so the Intervener would have had to cross-examine his own half-sisters.
7. The Local Authority then queried whether a hearing was in fact required. The point was made that no-one challenged the present care arrangements and the family was still (after nearly a year) adamant that the girls would not be welcome back in the family home. Although the Official Solicitor maintained that the grounds for an interim order would or could not be made out on the existing allegations, he accepted that the girls had in fact been at risk of significant harm immediately before the Local Authority took protective measures because they were rejected by their family and effectively homeless.
8. After discussion and mindful of the need to avoid the girls having to give evidence and be cross-examined if that could properly be avoided, it was agreed that an unopposed interim care order should be made on that basis. The effect of this was to give the Local Authority the necessary parental responsibility and to discharge the wardship proceedings. That course was approved by the court and an interim care order made.
9. Directions were then given to progress the preparation of a final hearing, should that prove necessary.