A v A Health & Social Services Trust & Anor

[1] This case concerns an appeal from a decision by Stephens J given on 16 October 2010 in which he made an order under Article 50 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 placing two young children (whom we shall call M and T) in the care of the relevant Trust. As children are the subject of the application nothing must be published which would result in the disclosure of their identities or that would enable them to be identified. Therefore in this judgment we shall refer to the father and the mother of the children and to the children in that fashion rather than by initials.

[2] This case relates to twins who were born on 13 June 2009 and who are therefore now just over two years of age. On the application of the Trust, and after protracted proceedings during which various assessments and investigations were carried out, a hearing took place before Stephens J who found that the threshold criteria required to be satisfied before an order placing children in care can be made were met, and he made the order appealed against for that reason.

(1) The learned judge failed to give sufficient weight to the oral evidence given by the [father] at hearing.

(2) The learned judge gave undue consideration and attached undue weight to the written evidence adduced at hearing in support of the [Trust's] case.

When the matter came on for hearing it transpired that the father had not complied with a direction given by the court on 4 April 2011 that he (a) file an amended Notice of Appeal, and (b) lodge a skeleton argument. However, he wrote a letter to the court dated 27 May 2011 in which he made the particular point that at the hearing his legal representatives did not call any of the Trust's witnesses despite his request that they be questioned.