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An 18 year old sought adoption by his paternal family members, who had been his de facto parents since he was a small child, after his mother killed his father. The application had been made just before the child’s 18th birthday but without allowing the required period of notice to elapse before issue. A fresh application could not be issued to cure the defect as the child was now 18.
The Court accepted the applicant’s arguments that the mother’s parental responsibility had been extinguished by the orders of a foreign court where the child had been born, and that she should not be notified of the proceedings or involved in them. The Hon Mrs Justice Judd adopted a purposive approach to the legislation in order to cure the technical defect in the application, and went on to make the adoption order.
Lucy Reed was instructed by Harrison Clark Rickerbys to act for the adopters.