Father v Mother & Anor

Facts

The applicant father sought a child arrangements order in respect of his son, born in about December 2018, who was 6½ at the date of this judgment. The parents were in a relationship between 2017 and the end of 2019, living together for two years. On 21 September 2019 an argument ended with the mother taking the father's prescription medication and locking herself and the child in the bathroom; the father forced the door, which bounced and struck the child's head, causing a bruise, and hit the mother's foot. He then took up a box cutter knife. The mother obtained a without notice non-molestation order on 27 January 2020, continued by consent before the Justices on 22 September 2020 without findings or admissions. The father issued these Children Act proceedings on 19 June 2020, when the child was 18 months old, complaining that the mother had stopped contact. The child has not seen his father since January 2020. Despite repeated orders and the mother's repeated agreements for supervised contact through a Child Contact Intervention and then an Improving Child and Family Arrangements programme, no direct contact took place. The father issued enforcement applications on 18 June 2021 and 13 January 2025, and alleged alienating behaviours. The child was joined as a party and a Guardian appointed.