Father v Mother & Anor

Facts

The applicant father applied for contact with his two children, X, a 12-year-old boy, and Y, a 9-year-old girl. The mother was the first respondent and the children, acting by their Children's Guardian, the second respondents. Both parents appeared in person; the Guardian was represented. The father had very recently been convicted of two counts of rape of the mother and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. The children had been seeing their father up to the point of conviction, though not between conviction and sentence, and both remained close to him and to Ms A, the father's partner. The mother was adamantly opposed to direct contact and to telephone or video contact, having no trust in the father or in Ms A, fearing that the father would maintain to the children his narrative that he had been wrongly convicted, and being concerned about the risk to the children of prison visits; in practice she was willing only to countenance recorded conversations, recorded messages or letters. The Guardian, who had been involved in the case for a long time, also opposed direct contact, concerned both about the impact on the mother and about the father pursuing a false narrative, and wished the children to be able to move on from these adult issues. The father sought monthly visits and twice-weekly telephone calls. The matter came before the High Court, Family Division, for determination of what contact should be ordered.