S (a child), Re

LORD JUSTICE THORPE LADY JUSTICE ARDEN LORD JUSTICE NEUBERGER ____________________

(Computer-Aided Transcript of the Stenograph Notes of Smith Bernal Wordwave Limited 190 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AG Tel No: 020 7404 1400 Fax No: 020 7831 8838 Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)

MS SALLY TERRIS (instructed by Messrs Armitage Sykes, Huddersfield) appeared on behalf of the Appellant MR ROGER BICKERDYKE (instructed by Messrs Khan, Bradford B11 2AA) appeared on behalf of the Respondent ____________________

The mother did not file evidence denying that conversation, and Miss Terris has said today that she has no instruction to admit that those were her client's defiant words, but equally she has no instruction which would enable her to deny the statement. That was a factor that bore with the judge. She said, particularly in paragraph 1 of her brief judgment:

In all the circumstances, it seems to me manifest that the judge's discretionary disposal was well within the wide ambit open to her. Faced with such defiance the judge would have been failing in her duty had she not upheld the authority of the court. For all those reasons, I regard this appeal as hopeless and only fit for dismissal.