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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> A and L (Children) [2011] EWCA Civ 1611 (21 December 2011) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2011/1611.html Cite as: [2011] EWCA Civ 1611 |
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ON APPEAL FROM THE PRINCIPAL REGISTRY
OF THE FAMILY DIVISION
HIS HONOUR JUDGE COMPSTON
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE MUNBY
and
LORD JUSTICE TOMLINSON
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In the Matter of A and L (Children) |
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Mr Stephen Bellamy QC and Miss Helen Soffa (instructed by local authority) for the local authority
Mr Anthony Hayden QC and Mr Tim Hussein (instructed by H E Thomas) for the father
Mr Bernard Huber (of Edwards Duthie) for the children's guardian
Hearing dates : 18 October 2011, 2 December 2011
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Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Munby :
"Sexual abuse, did it happen at all? Is it all in A's imagination? I have to say … I have little doubt that something happened. The point is this: Who was responsible for it? Was it the members of the gang of three? Was the mother aware or not aware?"
Later he expressed himself as "quite certain" that A had witnessed sexual activity and that she had herself experienced sexual abuse. "The point though", he said, "is by whom?"
i) First, he found that the interview was properly conducted.ii) Second, he found that A was "speaking quite naturally" and "telling her tale in a genuine way." She did not seem to be cowed or inadequate in giving her account.
iii) Third, he found that "some" of the things A said were "plainly wrong and were fantasies" and that some of her tale was "plainly not possible."
iv) Fourth, he was impressed by the amount of detail in what A was saying and the fact that it went beyond mere allegations.
"I should say this also that there was an awful lot of detail and that, to my mind, certainly matters. Sometimes in cases like this, and sometimes in criminal cases, one just gets one phrase, 'He touched my fanny,' or, 'He pulled my willy'. Just one. That is much harder, but in this particular case, we have very much more …
However, what did come across … were not just allegations. For example:
'Were you on the settee?' 'Yes'.
'How did Mummy put her private on your face?' "She was laying down, then she got up,' etc etc.
'Did Mummy have clothes on?' 'Yes.'
'What did it feel like?' 'Sickness. It feels disgusting.'
'Tell me why it feels disgusting?' 'Because it smells.'
'It smells. Okay, what did it smell of?' Answer: 'Her body.'
Question: 'Can you tell me what it felt like?' 'It felt, what do you mean?'
Question: 'Well how did it feel? Did it feel like skin? Did it feel like hair? Did it feel like clothes? How did it feel?' Answer: 'It felt like skin'.
I mention that because it seems to me that that is sufficiently cogent to show that something must have happened and it is not just a question of all imagination and having picked it up from conversation. Something must have happened."
I should add that the words quoted by the judge are extracted from an account which runs over several pages of the transcript of the ABE interview.
"I am certain that something on these lines did happen, though I am not necessarily … convinced that all the details, vis à vis which individual, are necessarily right. It seems to me that there is too much graphic information here to say that it is just in the mind."
He referred to an account which A had given the foster carers of how (I quote only the central part of A's account) X "took all his clothes off & he's [sic] pants & he took his privates & put it in my mouth & and he got me to bend down." He continued: "that incident is so graphic and detailed that I am satisfied there that that did actually happen. Also that it happened to young L." On the same topic he referred to that part of the second ABE interview where, speaking of her "daddy", who the judge took to be not her father but X, A had said that he put his dinkle on her face (previously in the same interview she had said he had put it in her mouth), that it felt disgusting, that he had done it ten times, that he had smacked his dinkle and that it had a bruise.
"I have thought long and hard about this, but I do, reluctantly, conclude as follows: You have a mother who was inadequate, undoubtedly vulnerable, depressed and lonely. Her friends, the gang of three, I have no doubt, manipulated her and relaxed her into thinking this sort of behaviour was alright. Therefore, she went along with it and cooperated with it.
I go on to say that my finding and feeling for the mother is that she is not essentially a perverted or a bad woman. She had just got in a very sad hole at that particular time and had no one to help her to dig herself out of that hole.
Therefore, sadly, I have to come down to this. 'Mummy put her privates on my face'. Later … telling the foster carer, 'My Mummy done bad things to me'.
Something like that did happen and I find the mother was involved."
"My findings, therefore, so far as the mother is concerned, I have put her mitigation, but for the reasons already given, I find that, substantially, the sexual abuse case is made out.
Undoubtedly, A was seriously abused, by the mother's friends at the time and sadly, the mother, not quite as badly as her friends, was involved in the sexual abuse of her daughter …
I am … certain that, normally speaking, the mother in a proper situation, a reasonably happy situation (ie when she is not depressed or particularly lonely) would not have been a party to this. However, sadly, to my mind, she was."
"A had plainly gained a knowledge of sexual matters entirely beyond what would be expected of a girl of her age. A had never displayed such knowledge in the past and had never exhibited sexualised behaviour;
During the time her parents were together, A's school, which she attended regularly, had never expressed any concerns of a sexual nature;
She (the mother) considered that A's sexual knowledge had arisen post separation and must therefore have been gained either in the period when she (the mother) was solely responsible for her care or during her time in foster care."
"There appears to be some strength in the argument that the trial judge needed to deal with issues such as this in some depth in order to explain why he was persuaded of the truth of the allegations he found proved in relation to the mother … It is arguable that his analysis of such issues was too superficial."
"the essential test is: does the judgment sufficiently explain what the judge has found and what he has concluded as well as the process of reasoning by which he has arrived at his findings, and then his conclusions?"
Thorpe LJ had previously observed that one should not ignore the "seniority and experience" of the particular judge, the "huge virtue in brevity of judgment", and that the "more experienced the judge the more likely it is that he may display the virtue of brevity." I should add that there is no obligation for a judge to go on and give, as it were, reasons for his reasons
Lord Justice Tomlinson :
Lord Justice Patten :
Note 1 This judgment was sent to the parties in draft in the usual way. Ms Ball asked for this paragraph, and paragraphs [5], [14] and [42], to be reconsidered with a view to correcting the statement that Judge Compston had found that A’s reference to “daddy” was in fact to X. Ms Ball submits that in fact the judge made no such finding. This is, with respect to Ms Ball, little more than semantic quibbling. It is absolutely clear from the paragraph in his judgment which I refer to in paragraph [14] that Judge Compston attributed to X the acts which in the ABE interview A had ascribed to “daddy”. The precise form of words does not matter: Judge Compston quite plainly found, held, proceeded on the basis, or whatever form of words one prefers, that X did these acts, that it was X who did them. True it is that Judge Compston did not in so many words say ‘I find that when A referred to her “daddy” this was in fact a reference to X’ but he did not need to, for that was necessarily implicit in what he did say. Ms Ball’s real point is that there was what she calls “confusion” in the judge's mind arising because of the way in which the local authority had put its submissions. I do not accept that there was any such confusion and nothing that Ms Ball says suggests there was. As I say in paragraph [42], the judge was entitled to find that “daddy” here referred to X.
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