Maladministration Legalises Child Kidnapping

PRESS RELEASE:

Maladministration Legalises Child Kidnapping
By Michal
2nd March 2018

A court’s procedural failure in family case leaves a mother with little options. A father, guilty of multiple attempted kidnappings, was given guardianship of the then two year old child, who turned three this past September.

In one instance of attempted kidnapping the father was caught on camera, stealing the child and the child’s belongings from the child’s carer.

K, a single mother of two children living in North London, has not seen or heard from her youngest child since the kidnapping on March 5, 2017, when the father breached contact arrangements and kept the child without notifying the mother and without lawful cause. K’s family have been encouraging the wayward father to return the baby but has not been successful and has not heard any word of the child.

K has filed an affirmed affidavit and a police report but has yet to hear anything back.

Months after the kidnapping, the Barnet Civil and Family Court ruled in favor of giving the father a form of guardianship of the child despite being jobless and homeless- a tolerated trespasser in his mother’s home. The father in question has never paid child support or contributed otherwise to the child’s welfare, nor is he named on the child’s birth certificate.

K was never served a notice of hearing from the court and found out later that a court bundle was delivered to her neighbour. The purported court order awarding guardianship does not have even one reason to support the ruling. The case was also procedurally defective because the fees for the relevant applications throughout the child arrangement proceedings were not paid nor is any fee exemption certificate recorded on the court’s computerised records. Moreover, the court had no jurisdiction by agreement from the parties involved which is a prerequisite of any child arrangement proceedings.

Last summer K contacted the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to confirm that the case was legitimate, MoJ could not provide any evidence that the case was registered on their secure data system.

In K's affidavit she provided evidence of court orders awarded to "applicant father" and a "child's solicitor" prior to the kidnapping, achieved by an email requesting judicial favor. As mentioned above, there is no record that the appropriate application form and fees were ever paid.

K’s filed complaints to the court have gone ignored.

After K applied for financial support via the Child Maintenance Service, the attempted kidnappings started. In previous instances of attempted kidnapping, the child was returned from the father to the mother via police intervention.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, a body that investigates corruption in public authority and complaints made by people who have suffered injustices as a result of poor administration or wrong applications of the Rule of Law, has taken on K’s report for the way in which Barnet Court handled her case, but responses have been extremely slow. And in cases of missing children, time is precious.

Contact details:
Name- Kay
Email- [email protected]