A Hague Convention return case in which the court ordered the return of a six-year-old girl to Hungary, holding that the child’s objection defence under Article 13 was not made out.
Background
The petitioner and respondent are Hungarian and married to each other. Their daughter, L, aged 6, was born in Belfast in 2019 where the parties then lived, and is a dual citizen of Hungary and the United Kingdom. The family moved back to Hungary in 2020 and L is habitually resident there.
On 29 August 2025 the respondent travelled to Scotland with L with the petitioner’s consent, the parties’ intention at that time being that the stay would be temporary. L was thereafter retained in Scotland, and the petitioner sought her return under the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985.
The decision
Article 12 of the Convention requires the requested State to order the return of a child who has been wrongfully removed or retained. Article 13 provides defences which, if established, mean that return need not be ordered. The respondent relied on L’s objection to returning.
Lord Braid accepted that L wished to remain in Scotland, but concluded that the broader welfare considerations, which pointed towards a return to Hungary, outweighed that view. The objection defence was accordingly not made out.
The court attached little weight to the suggestion that the respondent’s mother and brother intended to relocate to Scotland. If the sole reason for that move was to assist the respondent with childcare, it was a decision taken in the full knowledge that the court might order L to be returned.
Return was ordered. It was in L’s best interests that the Hungarian courts, rather than the Scottish court, determine her longer-term future, and a prompt return after an unlawful retention is precisely how the Convention is intended to operate.
Why this decision matters
A child’s stated wish is a relevant consideration under Article 13, but it is weighed against broader welfare considerations rather than being determinative. A six-year-old’s preference for remaining will rarely carry the day on its own.
Steps taken after a wrongful retention to establish a settled life in Scotland attract little weight where they were taken in the knowledge that return proceedings were live.
The Convention allocates the longer-term welfare decision to the courts of the child’s habitual residence. A return order determines forum, not outcome.
Legal review: Brian Rooney, Managing Partner and Law Society of Scotland Accredited Specialist in Family Law.