Please help me regarding custody/access with ex threatening to move abroad? (to Ireland from England)

[LolitasDad]

My partner and I have recently split up leaving our 8 month old daughter going back and forth between us - while not ideal this allows her to spend time with both of her parents however now my ex is getting very abusive and aggressive towards me and is now threatening to move to Ireland with the baby and deny me access all together. Is this allowed? Or Legal??
Please help me as I am spiraling into depression not being permitted to see my daughter and the looming prospect of there trip next week with a threat of no return is too much for me to take.

I need to know what the law is or how to deal with this if it does happen?

Please Help if you can and thank you for reading my question if not.

You need to apply to the court immediately for a prohibited steps order. The court can order that the child is not removed from the country. Where are you based?

Removing a child under 16 from the UK without the written consent of every person with parental responsibility or the permission of the court, will amount to child abduction and will usually be a criminal offence. This applies whether the removal is intended to be permanent, or only for a holiday, however brief, so will cover situations where the child is taken permanently to Australia or goes on a school trip to France.

The only exception to the need to obtain consent from the other parent (and anyone else with parental responsibility) is where a parent has a Residence Order in her or his favour. In this case, that parent may take the child abroad temporarily for up to a month without permission from the other parent, or the leave of the court.

Apart from this exception, if parents cannot agree on whether their children should be taken abroad, even for the briefest of holidays, then an application should be made to the court for permission to take the children abroad, either temporarily or permanently.

So the question is DO YOU have Parental Responsibility ? You say Partner not wife. Were you named on the birth cert ? More on this link.

www.pact-online.org/Advice/advice-action-guide-pact-parents-and-abducted-children-together-parental-abduction-missing-children-associate-of-icmec.html

Even if you don't have PR you can still apply for a prohibited steps order. You must act quickly though.

Thank you both for your responses.

I am named on the birth cert and my daughter has my surname but I am unsure how to confirm that I, in fact, have PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.

How would I go about checking this?

And I am based in London and my ex partner (we are not and have never been married) and daughter have been given a house by the council in Bedfordshire.

Thanks again.

The fact you're on the birth cert. gives you PR.

TBH unless your ex partner is eminently employable or feels that you are an immediate danger to her or your daughter, I can't see her giving up a council house and UK benefits to reside in Ireland at the moment. A long holiday perhaps but getting benefits in Ireland, not having been a recent tax payer is going to be tricky. A council house is out of the question.

I can't advise on denial of access [neither a lawyer nor have personal experience of this] but you should take Collaborate's advice and see a professional. A temporary prohibition on travel granted now would force some sort of formal agreement on contact.

From a personal perspective, I have a 9mo. I can't imagine handing her over on a regular basis for overnight stays or even for extended periods during the day to someone she doesn't see very much of [assuming you are at work in London during the week], it physically makes me stress out just to think about it. My DC is so small and vulnerable right now. I also have a toddler and I think from about 18 months, where there is regular contact, is the point at which I would have been quite comfortable with it. Not happy, but not irrationally stressed about it. Your lack of exclusive contact now does not automatically translate into no contact in the future, though I obviously have no idea as to why your relationship broke down. I do know that the 6 month mark is when most new parents married or otherwise reach a crisis point in their relationship.

ATM I see my daughter every week end and she loves the time she spends with me. My partner and I both lived together during the first 7 months of her life. So access is not an issue at the moment but am wanting to know where I stand if these random threats that are made have any weight as I could not bear to lose the contact I do have at the moment.

Thanks again and thanks to OldLadyKnowsNothing for PR confirmation.

Is it Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland ?

Republic of Ireland. Dublin.

Lolitasdad- hi there,

Firstly, I can only imagine what you're going through.

If the move is imminent then I would advise you apply for Prohibited Steps Order at the court and taken to your local court. This can be done on C100 form. You have PR and you have regular contact. I would make an emergency application if you fear that the child is to be removed from the jurisdiction imminently.

Whatever you do I'd do it now as if the child is removed to Dublin you will automatically be setting a status quo. This could mean that you may have to approach the Irish authorities for contact. For this though the child would have to be habitually resident in that country for 1 year (Art 3 (1) Brussels II. Either way though there is a clock on this.

If you fear that your child will be automatically taken to Dublin then I would call the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Child abduction section. Tel: 0207 008 0878. It's also worth contacting Reunite.

The leading case law on this is Payne v Payne [2001]. This is the suggested approach the courts will use in addressing the Leave to remove issue.

Happy to help.