Q (a child born April 2023), Re

Facts

The applicant father (F) and respondent mother (M) are both nationals of the same European Hague Convention country who made their life in the United Kingdom, where their son Q was born in April 2023. M fled the family home with Q in the autumn of 2023 and F applied for contact in November 2023. A prohibited steps order restraining M from removing Q from the jurisdiction was made by DJ Saunders on 17 November 2023. Contact began in February 2024, initially supervised at a contact centre for an hour, and was progressively extended by the orders of DJ Moon on 14 June 2024 and DJ Clarke dated 21 November 2024. At a fact-finding hearing on 20 and 21 November 2024 three allegations of domestic abuse against F were proven, involving grabbing M, throwing a framed photograph, pushing Q's pram into her and threatening to throw her from a fifth-floor window in Q's presence; an allegation of coercive and controlling behaviour was not proven. F initially refused to accept the findings and sought a polygraph test, later resiling from that stance after undertaking counselling. A final hearing at the RCJ in December 2025 was ineffective; a lives with order was made in M's favour then, and the matter came on for final hearing on 7 and 8 September 2026.