Mother’s health must stabilise before she returns abducted son

The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision that a mother must return her abducted son to Australia. It ruled that her mental health must be given time to stabilise before any order is made.

Shannon Bateson, Solicitor in our family law team reports on this recent case.

The case involved a 31-year-old British woman and her six-year-old son. The father was Australian. They began a relationship in 2015 and lived together in Australia.

The mother had a history of chronic mental health issues, which escalated after discovering, in October 2019, that the father had been having an affair throughout their relationship.

The couple separated. The mother and her six-year-old son, together with a nine-year-old son she had from a previous relationship, remained in the family home.

In April 2020, she self-harmed and attempted suicide. During a five-week period of hospitalisation, she was diagnosed with “adjustment disorder with depression and anxiety plus ADHD”.

In November, she left Australia with the children and without telling the father. They had been living in England ever since.

The father applied under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 for his son’s return.

The mother made allegations of physical abuse of both herself and the children; the father’s controlling and coercive behaviour; the impact of a return to Australia on her mental health; and the effect on her son of being separated from his older brother.

A psychiatric report noted that a return to Australia would impact adversely on her mental health and that, whilst adequate treatment was available in Australia, other factors such as relationship discord and inadequate social support could impact adversely on her recovery from anxiety and depression.

It was recommended that her mental health be stabilised before she returned to Australia.

The judge granted the father’s application after concluding that there was professional support in Australia for the mother’s mental health, which would be an adequate safeguard.

The Court of Appeal overturned that decision.

It held that there was no answer to the clear psychiatric evidence that the mother’s mental health would have to stabilise before a return to Australia.

For more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of family law please contact Shannon on 01228 516666 or click here to send her an email.