SB (A Child) (Alienating Behaviour: Application to Reopen Findings), Re

Facts

SB is a girl whose parents separated in 2015. A District Judge made a shared care order in September 2015. In August 2019 the father applied to vary that order after the mother, in June 2019, restricted his time with SB following SB's reports that he had pushed her head into a pillow and driven off before she had fastened her seatbelt. The mother referred the matter to the police and the local authority, later alleged domestic abuse, and opposed direct contact. The proceedings were transferred from Newcastle to the Family Court at Middlesbrough, where HHJ Mitchell held a fact-finding hearing on 17 and 18 June 2020 and gave judgment on 24 June 2020, finding both incidents proved but minor, and finding a real risk that the mother had influenced what SB was saying. The children's guardian, Ms Dean, and a Part 25 forensic psychologist, Dr Matthews, both reported on alienation. Following a welfare hearing in November 2020, the judge held on 14 December 2020 that SB's rejection of her father resulted from psychological manipulation by the mother, and transferred SB to the father's care. SB, now in her teens, remains with him. The mother applied under Part 18 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 to set those findings aside in light of Re Y.