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[1] I have anonymised this judgment to ensure that the names of the children and their parents are not disclosed. Nothing should be published which would disclose the identity of either of the parties or their children.
[2] The applicant and respondent met in 1987 and quickly formed a strong relationship. They lived together for a number of years and married in 1992. They have four children aged 17, 16, 12 and 6. The second oldest is a boy and the other three children are girls. The parties separated in July 2002. All of the children now live with the respondent. In these proceedings the applicant seeks a residence order in respect of the youngest child and a contact order in respect of the second youngest child pursuant to article 8 of the Children's (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.
[3] Unfortunately there has been a long and tortuous history of proceedings and assessments involving these children which has been undoubtedly to their disadvantage. At the time of the separation in July 2002 there were a series of allegations made about the behaviour of the applicant. Over the years new allegations have been made. These matters were first investigated by police in August 2002 and social services became involved.
[6] In September 2006 further mediation work was commenced at Diamond House Family Resource Centre. The few sessions which did occur were fraught with difficulty and no progress was made in resolving the issue of contact between the children and the applicant.
[7] In October 2006 Mr Justice Gillen made an Order that the applicant should have contact including overnight contact with the youngest child. In June 2007 the respondent alleged that the youngest child had made a disclosure to her of sexual abuse by the applicant as a result of which it was ordered that the overnight contact should cease and that contact thereafter should be supervised. By this stage the respondent was making extensive allegations of violent and sexually abusive behaviour by the applicant which required a fact-finding hearing.
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