The Local Authority v D

Facts

The subject child, A, was born in 2025 and is represented through his children's guardian, B. Warrington Borough Council issued care and placement order proceedings on 11 December 2025, following a period of PLO pre-proceedings during which C, A's putative father, was represented by solicitors. C is serving a custodial sentence: in 2026 he was sentenced to 42 months' imprisonment for stalking involving fear of violence against the mother, D, with a further five months consecutive for harassment, together with an indefinite restraining order protecting D and A. He has an extensive record of violence, domestic abuse, breaches of restraining orders and threats to kill, is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, psychosis, antisocial personality disorder and anxiety, and is a MAPPA offender. The evidence included threats made from prison in December 2025 to the allocated social worker, J, and the team manager, and continued contact with D from custody by unlawfully held mobile phones. C, who does not have parental responsibility, applied for party status one day before the IRH and in week 24 of the proceedings, seeking contact and assessment of his aunt, E, an existing foster carer, as a kinship carer. The local authority, the mother and the guardian all opposed the application. A was removed from the mother's care on 9 January 2026, and the final hearing was listed for 17, 18 and 19 June 2026 before HHJ Cuddy.