The children, a girl and a boy, were 11 and 6 1/2 at the date of the wrongful removal. The parents, who were separated, had joint rights of custody. The parents were British but had moved to Spain shortly before the birth of their son. The children’s home was in Spain. Custody proceedings in respect of the children commenced in Spain in July 1997. When the father removed the children on 3 January 2000 proceedings were still on-going.
On 3 March 2000 the English High Court ordered the return of the children. It held that the standard had not been made out under Article 13(2) to show that the girl was of sufficient maturity for her objections to a return to be taken into account. An argument under Article 13(1)(b) was similarly rejected. The father appealed.
