Francesca Wiley KC, leading Melissa Elsworth, acted for the child in the High Court case of Re E (A Child) (Complex Fact-finding Allegations of Domestic abuse and Alienating Behaviours) [2025] EWFC 422.
The case involved a number of very serious allegations, including alleged sexual abuse of the mother and an older child by the father, cross-allegations of domestic abuse, and allegations by the father of severe alienating behaviours by the mother.
The President of the Family Division described the case as ‘of the utmost complexity’.
The court found, as requested by the father and the guardian, that the children had been subjected to severe alienating behaviours by their mother. It further found that the father, rather than the mother, had been the victim of significant emotional abuse. The father was wholly exonerated.
The court further found the father’s Article 6 rights had been infringed by the mother within the litigation relating to the out of hours application to prevent him attending or holding any funeral for the deceased child [See paragraphs 749 –753 of the judgment]
The father was notified of the out of hours hearing significantly later than the press with “little time to read the papers and self-represented”. The court also found that “in the circumstances, the only reasonable finding I can make on the balance of probabilities is that the father was served late to gain some litigation advantage. The late service meant he received copies of D’s suicide notes 9 minutes before the hearing began. The late service in my judgment infringed the father’s Article 6 rights. The late hearing which took two hours, effectively deprived the father of any right of appeal”
In the linked judgment of Re E (A Child) (Disclosure to Regulator & Naming of a Witness in a Judgment) [2025] EWFC 423, the Honourable Ms Justice Henke determined (in line with the positions of the guardian and the father) that the deceased child’s former therapist should be named in the published fact-finding judgment and that the judgment should be sent to her regulator and the school for which she worked.
Francesca was instructed by Lisa Ursell of Wannops Solicitors.
Read the full judgment of Re E (A Child) (Complex Fact-finding Allegations of Domestic abuse and Alienating Behaviours) [2025] EWFC 422 here.
