I was wondering if someone would be able to give me some advice please?
My partner has always seen his daughter (10) EOW, 1 overnight per week and 50% of holidays. He was married to her mother until she was 4, and was living with them until that point so he has always had regular contact and has been hands on.
This August the contact was stopped suddenly for varying minor reasons (I feel it would be outing to state specifics but 3/4 reasons that most people wouldn't bat an eyelid at - eg. he didn't reply to a text quick enough etc)
They have been in mediation trying to get the contact re-established and to work through the issues, but to no avail as of yet unfortunately.
At the last mediation session EXW advised that she had booked a holiday for December to take their daughter abroad. EXW long term partner is originally from there and has a home there, and OH concern is that she may be planning to take her there and not bring her back, hence potentially the real reason why the contact was cut off suddenly after years for no specific reason.
He advised her that she did not have his permission to take their daughter out of the country while she was still withholding contact as he would have no way of knowing whether she was back or not (she is also withholding telephone contact so he cannot even speak to her) She has been to the same place at least 4 times per year over the last few years and OH has always been happy for her to go (even swapped weekends to accommodate / bought holiday clothes for her / put together airplane entertainment packs for her etc) so this is not something he has done lightly to deny her a holiday, rather a decision taken out of genuine fear that she is possibly going to take their daughter away permanently.
She said that as she has her passport, there was no way that he could stop her and she had every intention of taking her anyway regardless of what he says.
His solicitor hasn't been great. When mediation was failing (after 3 sessions, by which point contact had been denied for 10 weeks) he asked his solicitor to start court proceedings to get contact reestablished to which his solicitor directed him back to mediation for one more attempt to make sure that the option had been exhausted first. He is still waiting for an appointment to be arranged which is where things are currently. The trip is obviously next month now though and he fears if mediation does not work this time (if they even manage to arrange something in time) then it will be too late to do anything. It seems all his solicitor is actually prepared to do is repeatedly advise mediation and advise against taking things any further. He knows court is a last option, but he feels stuck at this point.
How does this situation work? I know the law is that all parents have to give permission for a child to go abroad, but in practice how do you actually do anything about it if the child is being denied contact with the NRP, and it is the RP who has the passport. Basically they can just go anyway?
Sorry for the long post, We're all very anxious about the situation. I am mother to this little girls 2 half siblings, and they are really feeling the strain of having not seen her for so long and it's taking its toll on all of us. Any advice would be much appreciated.