LH v DM

Facts

The parties are the unmarried parents of two girls, A, aged 10, and D, aged six, who share parental responsibility. Earlier proceedings ended with a child arrangements order made by District Judge Woodburn on 24 July 2022, under which the children lived with their mother and spent progressively more time with their father, latterly three nights over alternating weekends with an alternating Thursday night. In December 2024 the mother obtained a without notice non-molestation order, which was discharged on the father's undertaking given without admissions or findings. On 27 March 2025 the mother suspended the children's time with their father following an allegation that his partner SR's son, B, then seven, had behaved in a sexually inappropriate way towards A. Cross-applications followed: the mother's application dated 8 April 2025 to vary the order, and the father's application dated 4 April 2025 to enforce it, which became an application to vary. Contact was restored by District Judge Byass on 11 April 2025, that interim order was amended by District Judge Elboz on 25 April 2025, and Deputy District Judge Lucas directed a full return to the original order on 27 June 2025. A final hearing listed for 10 and 11 December 2025 was vacated by consent, and the matter came before District Judge Brown for a combined fact-finding and welfare hearing.