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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Supreme Court >> S-B Children, Re [2009] UKSC 17 (14 December 2009) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2009/17.html Cite as: [2010] 1 FLR 1161, [2010] AC 678, [2010] PTSR 456, [2010] 2 WLR 238, [2009] UKSC 17, [2010] 1 All ER 705, [2010] 1 FCR 321, [2010] 1 AC 678, [2010] Fam Law 231 |
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Michaelmas Term
[2009] UKSC 17
On appeal from: [2009] EWCA Civ 1048
JUDGMENT
S-B Children
before
Lord Hope, Deputy President
Lord Rodger
Lady Hale
Lord Brown
Lord Collins
Lord Kerr
Lord Clarke
JUDGMENT GIVEN ON
14 December 2009
Heard on 25 and 26 November 2009
Appellant Anthony Hayden QC Magdalen Case (Instructed by Dawson Cornwell) |
Respondent Susan Grocott QC Sasha Watkinson (Instructed by Trafford Borough Council Legal and Democratic Services) |
|
2nd Respondent Frances Judd QC Alexander Kloss (Instructed by Rowlands Solicitors) |
LADY HALE
The facts
The law
"(a) that the child concerned is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm; and
(b) that the harm, or likelihood of harm, is attributable to –
(i) the care given to the child, or likely to be given to him if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give to him; or
(ii) the child's being beyond parental control."
"It would be absurd to suggest that the tribunal must in all cases assume that serious conduct is unlikely to have occurred. In many cases, the other evidence will show that it was all too likely. If, for example, it is clear that a child was assaulted by one or other of two people, it would make no sense to start one's reasoning by saying that assaulting children is a serious matter and therefore neither of them is likely to have done so. The fact is that one of them did and the question for the tribunal is simply whether it is more probable that one rather than the other was the perpetrator."
Lady Hale made the same point, at para 73:
"It may be unlikely that any person looking after a baby would take him by the wrist and swing him against the wall, causing multiple fractures and other injuries. But once the evidence is clear that that is indeed what has happened to the child, it ceases to be improbable. Someone looking after the child at the relevant time must have done it. The inherent improbability of the event has no relevance to deciding who that was. The simple balance of probabilities test should be applied."
"[Counsel's] point was that if there is a real possibility of harm in the past, then it must follow (if nothing is done) that there is a risk of harm in the future. To our minds, however, this proposition contains a non sequitur. The fact that there might have been harm in the past does not establish the risk of harm in the future. The very highest it can be put is that what might possibly have happened in the past means that there may possibly be a risk of the same thing happening in the future. Section 1(3)(e), however, does not deal with what might possibly have happened or what future risk there may possibly be. It speaks in terms of what has happened or what is at risk of happening. Thus, what the court must do (when the matter is in issue) is to decide whether the evidence establishes harm or the risk of harm."
The "whodunit" problem
"That the harm must be attributable to the care given to the child requires that the harm must be attributable to the acts or omissions of someone who has the care of the child and the acts or omissions must occur in the course of the exercise of that care. To have the care of a child comprises more than being in a position where a duty of care towards the child may exist. It involves the undertaking of the task of looking after the child."
"Quite simply, it would be grotesque if such a case had to proceed at the welfare stage on the footing that, because neither parent, considered individually, has been proved to be the perpetrator, therefore the child is not at risk from either of them. This would be grotesque because it would mean the court would proceed on the footing that neither parent represents a risk even though one or other of them was the perpetrator of the harm in question."
Lord Nicholls went on, at para 32, to give the following guidance, on the assumption that the hearing would be split into a "fact-finding" and a "disposal" stage and that each might be heard by a different judge:
". . . the judge at the disposal hearing will take into account any views expressed by the judge at the preliminary hearing on the likelihood that one carer was or was not the perpetrator, or a perpetrator, of the inflicted injuries. Depending on the circumstances, these views may be of considerable value in deciding the outcome of the application: for instance, whether the child should be rehabilitated with his mother."
"The decisions in In re H, Lancashire County Council v B [2000] 2 AC 147, and In re O [2004] 1 AC 523 fit together as a coherent whole. The court must first be satisfied that the harm or likelihood of harm exists. Once that is established, . . . ,the court has to decide what outcome will be best for the child. It is very much easier to decide upon a solution if the relative responsibility of the child's carers for the harm which she or another child has suffered can also be established. But the court cannot shut its eyes to the undoubted harm which has been suffered simply because it does not know who was responsible. The real answers to the dilemma posed by those cases lie elsewhere – first, in a proper approach to the standard of proof, and second, in ensuring that the same judge hears the whole case. Split hearings are one thing; split judging is quite another."
These proceedings
"The test I have applied in relation to these findings is that set out in the House of Lords case of [Re H] of 1996. The standard of proof I apply is on the balance of probability. The allegations in this case are very serious indeed and in many respects are also very unusual. When I apply the appropriate standard of proof, it has to be based on evidence of reliability and cogency equivalent to the gravity of the allegations."
"When one is deciding these issues, a judge frequently reluctantly comes to the conclusion that he cannot decide who is to blame between two parents or among more than two people who have had care of the child over the relevant period. However, although unable to form a definitive decision to the requisite standard, a judge can still have an impression, falling short of a finding, that the propensity of the parties and the surrounding circumstances make it more likely that it was one party than another."
Hence the mother was not "absolved as a really possible or likely perpetrator". This meant that the threshold was crossed, not only in relation to the child who had suffered harm, but also in relation to the child who had not. The fact that there was a real possibility that she had caused the injuries to Jason meant that there was a real possibility that she would injure William.
Identifying the perpetrator: the standard of proof
"If an individual perpetrator can be properly identified on the balance of probabilities, then . . . it is the judge's duty to identify him or her. But the judge should not start from the premise that it will only be in an exceptional case that it will not be possible to make such an identification."
"It is paradigmatic of such cases that the perpetrator denies responsibility and that those close to or emotionally engaged with the perpetrator likewise deny any knowledge of how the injuries occurred. Any process, which encourages or facilitates frankness, is, accordingly, in our view, to be welcomed in principle."
Often, it is not only the parents, but the grandparents and other members of the family, who may be the best resource to protect the child in the future but who are understandably reluctant to accept that someone close to them could be responsible for injuring a child. Once that fact is brought home to them by a clear finding based upon the evidence, they may be able to work with the professionals to keep the child within the family.
". . . we are also of the view that it is in the public interest that children have the right, as they grow into adulthood, to know the truth about who injured them when they were children, and why. Children who are removed from their parents as a result of non-accidental injuries have in due course to come to terms with the fact that one or both of their parents injured them. This is a heavy burden for any child to bear. In principle, children need to know the truth if the truth can be ascertained."
If the judge cannot identify a perpetrator?
The unasked question
The conclusion in this case