June Venters KC led Barrister Sarah Hopkinson, both from KBW, in complex care proceedings involving parental alienation. June and Sarah represented the local authority who were seeking the removal of a 9-year-old child who had been subjected to significant parental alienation.
Care proceedings were issued in June 2023 during private law proceedings between the parents, when the local authority became concerned about the negative influence that the domiciliary parent was having.
The case was considered by all the professionals, including the expert child psychologist to be finely balanced on the question of removal.
June Venters and Sarah Hopkinson were able to sway the balance in favour of their client by thoroughly navigating a voluminous amount of evidence spanning a period of more than 2 years continuous court proceedings. In addition, they had to navigate an abundance of late evidence that was filed during the course of the Hearing, much of which consisted of covert recordings. As a result of their thoroughness and tenacity the court decided in favour of the local authority and the removal of the child.
Following this decision, a stay of proceedings and permission to appeal was pursued by the parent from whom the removal had been ordered.
In defence of this, June Venters KC and Sarah Hopkinson [and the other parties] then prepared a detailed response opposing the application for permission to appeal. The skill and expertise of June and Sarah was a major contributing factor in causing the Court of Appeal to refuse permission to appeal and the trial Judge’s initial decision to remove the child was implemented immediately thereafter.