A Local Authority v PS & HS [2019] EWCOP 60

Application for a declaration that PS lacks capacity to make decisions about contact and, if so, to order that it is in her best interests not to have contact with HS, her former husband.

PS, who is 80 years old, and HS had divorced some 25 years ago but started to see each other again in 2016/17 when PS became ill (subsequently diagnosed with she was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia) and their daughter (DS) became ill with cancer in 2018. A friend (DB), who was supporting the family through this time, says that he was told by PS that she did not want HS around (and there were investigations into alleged sexual assault by HS).

Mrs Justice Judd notes that the evidence was that PS did not now know who HS was and, though pleased to see him despite this, that his visits caused anxiety, concluding at [16] that

"She [PS] does not know who he [HS] is, and she is not able to appreciate the negative and positive effects that contact with him has upon her. She is not able to weigh up and retain information about what type of contact she could have and in what circumstances. There is no prospect that her capacity to make this decision will improve, and nor is there any way in which she could be assisted with this."
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Accordingly she found that PS lacked capacity to make decisions about contact. Rejecting HS’s contention that DB and her husband are hostile to him and that they have persuaded the professionals to their view, she also ordered that it is not in PS's best interests to have contact with HS
 
Read the full judgment on BAILII