LM, Re, Court of Appeal - Family Division, August 01, 2007, [2007] EWHC 1902 (Fam)

Reporting Judge: [2007] EWHC 1902 (Fam)

President: LM, Re

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Extract

LM, Re, Court of Appeal - Family Division, August 01, 2007, [2007] EWHC 1902 (Fam)

Neutral Citation Number: [2007] EWHC 1902 (Fam)

Case No: HB04C00060

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE

FAMILY DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 01/08/2007

Before :

SIR MARK POTTER

THE PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY DIVISION

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| |Re: LM | |

| |(Reporting Restrictions; Coroner’s Inquest) | |

| | | |

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Mary Lazarus (instructed by Legal Department) for the A Local Authority

Alison Ball QC and Aviva Le Prevost (instructed by Harney & Co) for the First Respondent

Paul Storey QC and Rebecca Brown (instructed by Holden & Co) for the Second Respondent

Malcolm Chisholm (instructed by Stephen Rimmer & Co) for the Guardian

Damian Woodward-Carlton (instructed by) for the HM Coroner

Guy Vassall-Adams (instructed by Times Newspapers Limited and the BBC) for the The Media

Hearing date: 16 May 2007

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Judgment

SIR MARK POTTER THE PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY DIVISION

This judgment is being handed down on 1 August 2007. It consists of 24 pages and has been signed and dated by the judge. The judge hereby gives leave for it to be reported.

The judgment is being distributed on the strict understanding that in any report no person other than the advocates or the solicitors instructing them (and other persons identified by name in the judgment itself) may be identified by name or location and that in particular the anonymity of the children and the adult members of their family must be strictly preserved.

Sir Mark Potter, P :

Introduction

1. These proceedings concern LM, a small girl born on 3 September 2001 and now aged 5 years 11 months who is presently living in foster care with a view to adoption. She is, for reasons which will appear, a troubled and traumatised child.

2. At the beginning of 2004, LM, aged 2½ was living, together with her older sister L aged 3 years 9 months in the care of her mother. Her younger brother H had died at the age of 7 months in August 2003.

3. On 2 February 2004, L was found dead in suspicious circumstances. LM was immediately removed and placed in care for a brief period with a foster family, being returned to the care of her father (now living separately from the mother) under an interim care order on 5 May 2004.

4. Fact-finding hearings in relation to L’s death were conducted by Charles J in the Family Division between 22 November and 2 December 2004 and 24 January and 28 January 2005. In the course of those hearings the circumstances surrounding the earlier death of H were examined, but the cause of his death was not ascertained. However, in his judgment dated 8 March 2005 Charles J concluded that, according to the civil standard of proof applicable in care proceedings, the mother had caused the death of L through physical ill-treatment. That judgment is reported as A Local Authority v K, D and L [2005] EWHC 144 (Fam), [2005] 1FLR 851.

5. At the beginning of S...

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