Barbara was recently instructed to represent a respondent mother in private children law proceedings where contact between the applicant father and the child had ceased following a disclosure made by the child that suggested she had been sexual harmed by the father. The father denied the allegation and made a cross-allegation that the mother was fabricating these disclosures to prevent him from having contact with the child and she had been obstructive to contact progressing since the conclusion of the first set of private law proceedings.

Upon hearing oral evidence and taking a holistic view of the evidence before the court, the Judge took the view that the child had made these disclosures and she had been honest with what she had said. The court found that on the balance of probabilities, the father had perpetrated sexual harm on the child. The court also said the mother had been actively the progression of contact until the child made this disclosure and her actions following this had been entirely appropriate and supported by the local authority. The court agreed that the mother had not acted maliciously by stopping contact, nor did she fabricate the disclosure made by the child as a means of alienating the child from the father.

To instruct Barbara Gonzalez-Jaspe please contact the Clerks.