E v E & Ors

Facts

The case concerned four children of separated parents — EG, aged 15, A, aged 13, O, aged 11, and EL, aged 10. On 2 May 2025 District Judge Parker ordered that the children be removed from the father's care to live with the mother with immediate effect, directed indirect contact with the father once a fortnight facilitated by the local authority, made a prohibited steps order against the father endorsed with a penal notice restraining him from removing the children from the mother's care or the UK, and directed an addendum section 37 report; that judgment is reported at [2025] EWFC 289 (B). A committal application against the father for earlier non-compliance was disposed of on 7 May 2025 with no order, and the father's application for permission to appeal the removal order was refused on 4 December 2025. The children remained with the mother, initially in one-bedroom accommodation, and the proceedings were dominated by sibling conflict, repeated police callouts, EG's school exclusions and the mother's overcrowded housing, which was resolved by a move on 13 March 2026 after the judge listed the matter before Mrs Justice Lieven. The local authority, the Children's Guardian and the mother sought final orders confirming the existing arrangements; the father sought the children's return to his care.