I wonder if any of you can help me. I am posting on behalf of a friend but none of us have any legal knowledge. I will also post this in legal but thought I may get more of a response more quickly in here.
A friend and his partner have split up. They have 2 sons and she has a daughter from a previous relationship. Yesterday my friend returned from work to find her clearing the house and taking all the children to an unknown destination. My friend did not want to allow her to take the boys but he was prevented from taking them by members of her family. There has been extensive social services involvement over the last few weeks for a few reasons, mainly the mother feeling unable to cope with the children.
Today he went to see a solicitor and within two hours they were in court and he was awarded an interim residence order requiring the two boys to live with him at his parents' house for the next week, and allowing access to the children for the mother. The mother was required to deliver the children to my friend's parents' house within 90 minutes and received instructions to do so by couriers. She then phoned my friend and told him to go and get the children. He replied that he was not allowed to go and get them and that she had to bring them to him. She then phoned the Police complaining that the documents she had received were faked and that she would not be taking the children anywhere.
After 90 minutes had elapsed my friend contacted the Police to state that the order had not been fulfilled. The same Policeman who had attended the mother's house came to my friend's house and stated that the documents weren't genuine. My friend then showed the Policeman his documents and he agreed that they were stamped by the courts and were genuine. The Policeman negotiated with my friend and ended up getting him to agree with leaving the children where they are tonight and sorting it out in the morning. My friend then signed to say that he agreed with this. As far as Social Services are concerned the children are with my friend and not their mother.
So, in essence, the Police and Social Services have failed to carry out the court order. Can they do this? What would the next step be? None of us have any legal knowledge and have never been in this position before so I really have no clue what the next step would be. Any help would be gratefully received.