Cafcass needs to do a lot of learning;
Despite the serious findings made against him, including rape, by District Judge Sophie Harrison, White had previously been granted unsupervised access to his daughter after a recommendation by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass).
Harrison’s order permitting contact, made in February, was overturned after a successful appeal by the mother. White’s contact with the girl was suspended pending the court’s final orders, and the matter was referred to Moradifar.
After the appeal, the TBIJ and the freelance journalist Suzanne Martin successfully applied to the court to name White. A new children’s guardian from Cafcass advised the court at that point that White was “a danger to women and children” and “unsafe to have any involvement in [the child]’s or her family’s life”.
In an interview, the mother, who had represented herself in court up until February’s hearing, said it was concerning that two Cafcass employees came to polar opposite conclusions.
Cafcass, which earlier this year received an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted, declined to comment on the case after the final hearing. However, Moradifar said that senior Cafcass officers had been in touch with the court to request previous judgments from the case to see if there “might be some learning”.