The application related to a young girl born in the UAE. Her mother was British, her father a UAE national. The parents married in Sharjah and their daughter was born there in February 1995. Mother and child made an extended visit to England in the summer of 1995. In the summer of 1996 the mother again went to England with her daughter. They were due to return in September but with the father’s consent they remined longer.
In October the mother indicated to the father that she did not wish to return. In December the father came to England and at this time he realised that mother and daughter would not return voluntarily. The father issued non-Convention proceedings to secure his daughter’s return.
On 20 February 1997 the Family Division of the High Court dismissed the father’s application on the basis that he had shown a sufficient degree of acceptance of the child living with the mother for it to be inappropriate to accede to a return request. The father appealed.