Re D, E, and F (Children) (The Children Act 1989) [2025] EWFC 174 (B)
25/06/2025
Catherine Piskolti, junior counsel instructed by Niral Patel and led by Martin Kingerley KC, successfully represented the Father in complex care proceedings involving allegations of sexual abuse and the transmission of a sexually transmitted infection (gonorrhoea) to three young children.
After a multi-day fact-finding hearing involving extensive expert medical evidence and evidence for lay parties the Local Authority amended its schedule of findings, no longer sought any findings against the father and withdrew its case against him. The Court found that the Father was not the perpetrator of the sexual abuse nor the source of the gonorrhoea.
The case involved intricate issues of causation, and forensic medical evidence, with the Judge ultimately accepting the Father’s case that the Father could not have been responsible for the children’s STI and had not sexually abused any of his children. The children were returned to the care of the parents.