My husband is trying to stop his ex wife and new husband taking his children to live in Australia. In her and her husbands leave to remove statements, they have admitted they lived together as a family since 2003, since the children were 3 and 7. My husband was very upset by this as during the divorce in June 2004, when the children were nearly aged 5 and 9, she swore in court that she was a single mum (she was claiming benefits and legal aid), and though in a relationship it was not a serious one, and should not be taken into consideration (her partner was earning over 80k a year and had his own house). Needless to say my husband did not do very well in the divorce and had to live at his parents for a further 3 years after the divorce, while she and her husband did very well and they moved into a large 6 bedroom house worth over 800,000 in Surrey. Eventually in 2007, after his parents generously (as they are not wealthy), lent my husband 30k, my husband scraped enough together to buy a small 2 bedroom flat. As you can imagine the fact he could not have his children in a flat of his own till 2007, impacted on their relationship. Sadly after only a year he had to get a lodger (he inherited a joint debt in the divorce and had to get a high interest rate mortgage) and he had to go back to having his children at his parents. So you can imagine to now discover she lied in the divorce is very hard for him. In his statement he brought up this incongruence, thereby giving his ex wife the opportunity to say she made a mistake about the year she started being supported by her now husband, but all she said, in one brief line, in reply in her final statement is that the court can look at the paperwork if it assists(the form E). We nearly missed it the first few times. Any way, my husband knows he could report her for perjury, and benefit fraud etc, and put an end to this leave to remove, but he does not want to put the children through stress. So he thinks he has so simply go to court and do his best knowing she is a ruthless woman, who will say whatever she needs to say in court to convince the court she will be a model mother when it comes to promoting his relationship with his 2 much loved children from the other side of the world (which is hard for him to believe when she has always been hostile, and he only gets the contact he gets now due to a contact order he had to secure in 2004, and then she always tries to minimise it for parties, sleepovers etc. He also acted like a crazy lady when I entered his life 7 years ago, sending texts saying "I don't want my children spending time with 'that' woman", even though I am a perfectly nice respectable mum of 3, who only met the children for 10 minutes on that particular visit. Basically we think she is taking the kids to oz to remove us from their lives. She has offered NO evidence for lifestyle motive (such as husbands current salary, or explained how she can still afford a cleaner and laundry service, by her own admission in her expenditure statement, but not her daughters much loved gymnasitics class). In her husbands statement he said if leave to remove is not granted, his wife's dissapointment will lead to everyone being very unhappy. Says it all really. Anyway, my husband was wondering if he could apply to the court to get the case dismissed, based on an admission of perjury (backed up by her own husband in his statement), in the previous divorce, which is a criminal offense, and invalidates the case as there can be no trust there regarding compliance to contact orders from Australia etc. He is so stressed and this case has got us 7k in debt, on the year we have got married. My husband is not representing himself, due to lack of funds. He is on reduced hours at work for stress, and having counselling. Several times he has made up his mind to report his ex for perjury, as it has got him into a state, and then panicked about the impact on his kids, he loves them so much. But should this be an all or nothing thing. Please tell us what you think. Should someone who has blatantly held the court in such contempt in the past, be now asking another court to grant leave to remove the man she defrauded in the pasts children to Australia. How can she be trusted? Help please.

I don't think what she swore to in court about the seriousness of her relationship with her present spouse is as serious as you seem to think it is. I doubt that the court will view it as perjury and, in any event, will not use that alone to "throw out" her application to relocate. However your husband should still vigorously oppose the application on the grounds that it would effectively deprive the children of their father (your husband).

If the court does let her take the children to Australia, she should be required to pay the cost of flying the children to the U.K. for visits with your husband. Australian "summer vacation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_term#Australia)" is in the middle of winter (in the northern hemisphere), and so scheduling visitation might be complicated.

The basic question here is what is the relationship between your husband and his children. If he has been an active part of his children's lives and maintains a good relationship with them, then THAT should be his argument. That the proposed move will interfere with his rights and the rights of his children to a relationship with their father.

Bringing up the past and opening old wounds, will probably not work. Simply move to dismiss the request on the grounds that it will have a negative impact on his relationship with his children.

But have a backup plan. If the court does allow the move, ask that the children be allowed to come visit during school holidays at the mother's expense.

Thanks for the replies. Does it alter anything if my husband can provide evidence that she has lied about several material particulars told to discredit him in this case though, which he can. Is that not a further case of perjury under section 5 of the 1911 Perjury Act. Would that not be grounds for a dismissal?

I would hold that in reserve. Start with the dismissal as I suggested. If the judge refuses to dismiss and orders a hearing, then you can go over with the judge the inaccuracy of her filings.