Damian Garrido QC, Alicia Collinson and Kate Ferguson successful in the Court of Appeal

Re. Y & E (Children) [2019] EWCA Civ 206, 21 February 2019.

Damian Garrido QC (leading Elizabeth Walker) representing the children’s mother and Alicia Collinson leading Kate Ferguson representing the local authority successfully argued for the dismissal of an appeal by the father against findings of sexual abuse made by HH Judge Handley sitting at Northampton.

The Court of Appeal accepted their arguments that the deficiencies in the ABE interview process were not so serious as to render the child’s interviews of no or limited evidential value and the judge was entitled to make the findings. The Court agreed with Mr Garrido that a trial judge is entitled to a ‘margin of appreciation’ and findings of facts should not be interfered with unless there are compelling reasons so to do (see Fage UK Ltd v Chobani UK Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 5). Finally, the Court re-stated the well settled law that the standard of proof in such cases is the balance of probabilities.

The judgment can be found here.