Cases
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham v Mother & Ors
Court
The High Court of Justice Family Division
Practice Areas
Reported Case: Chris Stevenson acted for the applicant local authority in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham v Mother & Ors
Chris Stevenson represented the applicant local authority in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham v Mother & Ors. The matter concerned care proceedings relating to three children, C, E and M, aged 14, 12 and 10 respectively, as well as inherent jurisdiction proceedings relating to C arising from issues concerning serious medical treatment.
The proceedings were issued in May 2025 after the local authority became aware that C had been left in hospital and that both C and M were present in England without an adult able to care for them. The father had been refused re-entry to the UK from France with E, and the mother’s whereabouts were initially unknown. The family had lived across multiple jurisdictions, including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and the Netherlands, resulting in significant uncertainty as to the children’s habitual residence.
Mr Justice Williams held that there was no jurisdiction in respect of E, who had not been present in England since late May 2025 and was neither habitually resident nor a UK national, and the local authority was granted permission to withdraw its application in relation to E. Unusually, it was concluded that it was not possible to establish the habitual residence of C or M. They therefore fell within Article 6(2) of the 1996 Hague Convention, thereby giving the courts of England and Wales substantive jurisdiction as if under Article 5(1). Both the care proceedings and the inherent jurisdiction application relating to C’s medical treatment were allowed to proceed to the welfare stage.
Read the judgment here.
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