Parental Alienation: A Robust Response

• Published date: 25 August 2022
• Subject Matter: Family and Matrimonial, Family Law
• Law Firm: Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors
• Author: Ian Walker Family Law And Mediation Solicitors

A robust response to parental alienation

Parental alienation, where one parent's behaviour has the effect (intended or not) of alienating a child against the other parent, is the subject of considerable debate in family law circles.

And a large part of that debate relates to the perception that the family courts are weak when dealing with parental alienation. But this is not necessarily the case, as demonstrated by a recently-published judgment of the Family Court in Manchester.

Removing the father from the child's life

The judgment concerned a case involving a child born in 2016. The application before the court was by the father for, amongst other things, a child arrangements order.

Briefly, the history of the case was as follows.

The parents were not married, and their relationship ended when the child was born. The father was not named on the child's birth certificate, and as a result did not have parental responsibility for the child.

Notwithstanding this, the father maintained that he had a close relationship with the child, until he requested parental responsibility, in about December 2020.

The mother responded to that request by taking various steps with the clear intention of removing the father from the child's life.

Those steps included: making an unfounded allegation that the father had inappropriately touched the child; informing the father and the child that he may not be the biological father; stopping contact and telling the child that he would not be seeing the father again; and moving from Kent to the Manchester area, without telling the father where she was going.

As a result of the mother's actions, the last time the father saw the child was in January 2021.

In April 2021 the father made various applications to the court, including for disclosure of the mother's whereabouts, for a child arrangements order, and for a declaration of parentage.

However, matters became rather more urgent when the full extent of the mother's behaviour, both in relation to the child and towards the court, became clear.

Obstructive and alienating - Parental alienation

As the case progressed, the mother became obstructive towards the proceedings.

Obviously, the court needed to investigate the mother's suggestion that the father was not actually the child's biological father, and the way to do this was by paternity testing.

Initially the mother told the court that she was opposed to paternity testing. Notwithstanding this, in September 2021 the court directed...