A and B No 3 (care : further welfare hearing), Re

Facts

Slough Borough Council brought care proceedings, issued on 30 May 2025, in respect of two girls, [A] and her much younger half-sister [B], before HHJ Vincent sitting as a section 9 Deputy High Court Judge in the Family Court at Reading. Following a fact-finding hearing, judgment was handed down on 1 June 2026, in which the judge found that [A] had been sexually abused by her step-father, [Mr Z], including repeated sexual assaults and rape, that he had accessed and shared indecent images and videos of her using his access to her social media accounts, and that his conduct — coupled with threats to kill [A] and her mother if she disclosed the abuse — amounted to coercive and controlling behaviour designed to silence her and perpetuate the abuse. On 8 June 2026 the judge handed down a welfare judgment for [A], then days from her seventeenth birthday, making a final care order notwithstanding [A]'s wish to return to her mother, given the mother's vulnerabilities, including misuse of alcohol, and continuing issues relating to [Mr Z]. [A]'s application under section 34(4) of the Children Act 1989 for contact was adjourned. [B], aged six, has lived with her maternal grandparents since she was a baby and has not seen [Mr Z] for two years. This adjourned final hearing concerned the outstanding welfare decisions, principally for [B].