X v Q

Facts

These were private law proceedings in the Central Family Court concerning two children, AXQ, a teenage boy, and his younger sister BXQ. The father, X, and the mother, Q, were never married but lived together from September 2003 until their final separation in April 2021, having briefly separated in April 2019 and reconciled that December. They have an older son, CXQ, now 19. The father, who shares parental responsibility by virtue of being named on the birth certificates, applied on 14 September 2023 for a child arrangements order for both children to spend time with him, including unsupervised and overnight contact. Contact had been sporadic since separation, the mother being concerned about the father's behaviour and alcohol consumption. In October 2023 a Cafcass safeguarding letter recommended immediate suspension of direct contact in view of the mother's allegations of domestic abuse and of the father drinking while the children were in his care; the London Borough of Southwark agreed, though it declined to complete a section 37 report. At the FHDRA on 5 December 2023 supervised contact was directed in the presence of the parties' mutual friend Y, and has continued fortnightly. On 2 May 2024 a fact-finding hearing was found necessary, the father disputing all the allegations. The father raised cross-allegations against the mother for the first time on 27 June 2024. Hair strand testing indicated chronic excessive alcohol use and traces of cocaine.