Court Report: Failed application to appeal a court order

This case concerned an application by a mother for permission to appeal an order that transferred the residence of her child to the child's paternal grandmother. The child's mother and father were separated, and in November 2007 the father applied to have contact with P, the child. For the following three years the mother breached contact orders and made a series of unsupported allegations against P's father. By the time of the final hearing the mother had failed to allow the father contact with P, without a proper excuse, on 28 out of 34 occasions.

The judge in the Crown Court decided that it would be in the best interests of P to live with her paternal grandmother. In making this decision the judge had regard to the emotional harm that P would suffer if she was to remain living with her mother due to the ongoing hostility that the mother felt towards P's father.