ABSTRACT
The applicant and his wife had three children; the present case concerned only the youngest of them, S, who was born on 31 October 1978. The couple had a history of serious marital and financial difficulties. On 16 August 1979, the Local Authority assumed parental rights in respect of S, but in September it reached agreement with the natural parents with a view to returning S to them in February 1980 if they overcame their domestic difficulties. Because of deterioration in the family circumstances, the Authority decided that S should be placed with long-term foster parents with a view to adoption. This decision was approved by the Authority’s Adoption and Foster Care Committee on 31 March 1980. In April 1980 the Authority decided that access of the applicant and his wife to S should be terminated. Applications made by the applicant and his wife in November 1980 for the discharge of the Authority’s parental rights resolutions in respect of S were granted by the juvenile court in January 1981. However, on 22 June 1981, following wardship proceedings by the Authority in the High Court, confirmed by the Court of Appeal on 6 October 1981, it was decided that it was in S’s best interests and in view of the time that had elapsed that he should remain with the foster parents with whom he had been placed in May 1980 and that the applicant and his wife should not have access to him. The applicant complained about the procedures applied in reaching the decisions to restrict and then terminate his access to S and about the remedies available to him in that connection. Comm found by majority (11-2 with one abstention) V 6(1) during the time when the parental rights resolution affecting the applicant was in force in that he was denied access to court for the determination of his civil right of access to S, (13-1) no separate issue arose under 6(1) in regard to the length of the wardship proceedings, (13-1) V 8 (8-6) no separate issue under 13.
