Appeal court judges have delivered a stinging rebuke of a series of administrative and judicial errors in the child custody case Hammerton v Hammerton, where the father was sent to prison for three months.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Collins, was wrong to conduct joint proceedings for contact and committal, and this led to “inescapable errors in procedure” that deprived Mr Hammerton of the protection to which he was entitled, Lord Justice Moses said in his judgment.
Mr Hammerton, who was unrepresented, had applied for contact with two of his five children, while Mrs Hammerton had applied for her ex-husband’s committal to prison for breach of previous court orders. Collins J heard both applications together.
Moses LJ said the court below breached Mr Hammerton’s right to a fair trial and that the court should have inquired into the reasons why the father was unrepresented, and granted an adjournment while this could be resolved.
“The important rights en-shrined in Art 6 [of the European Convention on Human Rights] must not be sacrificed in the interests of time and costs,” he added.
Lord Justice Wall, who
