Let them use Skype! Judge sends children to Australia with mother and tells father to talk to them via the internet

[Alison J Stevens]

Let them use Skype! Judge sends children to Australia with mother and tells father to talk to them via the internet

 

Sir Nicholas Wall said his colleague Judge Tyzack had ‘plainly reached the wrong conclusion’.

The nation’s top family judge today broke a father’s heart when he gave permission for his ex-lover and their children to move to Australian – and said they could communicate via Skype.

The father, from Devon, argued his children’s departure with their mother to the other side of the world would destroy the ‘embryonic’ relationship he has with them.

But, while accepting that the father’s objections ‘came from the heart’, Sir Nicholas Wall said the children’s best interests demanded that they and their mother be allowed to go.

Judge David Tyzack QC, sitting at Exeter County Court, had banned the mother’s ‘relocation’ plans last year. But Sir Nicholas, who is the nation’s most senior family judge as President of the Family Division, ruled he had been ‘plainly wrong’ to do so.

The court earlier heard that the former couple never married and have ‘grown a long way apart’ in the years since they split. The mother said she would be ‘devastated’ if her plans to move to Australia with her pre-teen children are blocked.

In his ruling last year, Judge Tyzack said the relationship between the children, their father and the paternal family was at a critical stage and their departure to Australia would be a ‘grave loss’.

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However, reversing that decision today, Sir Nicholas, sitting with Lord Justice Lloyd and Lord Justice Elias, said Judge Tyzack had ‘plainly reached the wrong conclusion’.

Sir Nicholas said the age of Skype meant the children’s move did not mean the destruction of their relationship with their father

‘Having reflected carefully on this case, I have reached the clear conclusion that the best interests of the children require the mother’s application to relocate with them to Australia to succeed.’

Although he ‘did not minimise’ the father’s objections, Sir Nicholas said the age of instant online communication – including Skype – meant the children’s move did not mean the destruction of their relationship with their father.

Neither the English nor the Australian courts would ‘sit idly by and allow the relationship to wither’, he said, before concluding that the balance ‘pointed overwhelmingly’ towards the mother getting her wish of relocating to Australia, where she says the children will enjoy a better lifestyle.

New life: The mother had said she felt ‘isolated, trapped and depressed in England’

The mother had said she felt ‘isolated, trapped and depressed in England’ and Sir Nicholas added that the children clearly wanted to go with her.

Describing the decision as ‘really hard’ for the father, Lord Justice Lloyd said that, whichever conclusion the Appeal Court reached, the outcome would be ‘extremely difficult, and even harsh, for one parent or the other’.

However, both he and Lord Justice Elias agreed that the mother’s appeal be allowed and that preparations now be put in train for her departure with the children to Australia.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371632/Judge-sends-childre...