Two boys who hated living in France so much they asserted their Britishness and refused to return to live there with their mother have been granted their wish by senior judges.
In a highly unusual case, Lord Justice Thorpe, one of three judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, said that the desire of the brothers, aged 11 and 16, to live in England deserved to be respected and overrode even the wishes of their own mother.
Describing the case as “not just exceptional but very exceptional”, the judge said that the boys’ French mother had taken them back to her homeland with her in 2005 after her marriage to their British father had broken down. But the two boys, who at the time spoke no French, failed to settle into their new lives in a market town in southern France and, after a holiday in England with their father in July this year, refused to return.
The boys’ mother came to England to take them back to France but they insisted that they wanted to stay in England.
The judge added: “Apparently, they told her that [in England] they could walk to school, could have their own key and would not have as much homework.”
The case is continuing as there will now be a hearing over contact arrangements for the mother.
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