International comity prevents disclosure of prosecution documents in family proceedings, as David Burrows reports
In P v P [2012] EWHC 1733 (Fam), Moylan J ordered production of information to Mrs Gohil against the Crown Prosecution Service (under Family Procedure Rules 2010 r 21.2). This information had been provided to the CPS under international provisions intended to assist criminal prosecution. Mr Gohil had already been successfully prosecuted. The information which Mrs Gohil sought might assist her application to set aside a financial remedy order, dated April 2004. She believed the order had been obtained against a background of misrepresentation on the part of Mr Gohil.
An appeal against the order by the CPS, in a case now entitled Crown Prosecution Service & Anor v Gohil [2012] EWCA Civ 1550; [2013] 1 FCR 371, was brought on for hearing quickly by the Court of Appeal. The appeal was allowed (Lord Neuberger MR, who gave the judgment of the court, Hallett and McFarlane LJJ), and, on the face of it, its resolution was very simple, given the wording of the statutory provisions in question. However, in explanation of
