(Court of Appeal, Thorpe, Moses, McFarlane LJJ, 14 February 2013)
The child was the subject of a care plan and care order and was placed with foster carers. The local authority obtained an injunction against the father preventing him from harassing or interfering with the foster carers and from publicising any information in relation to the proceedings.
In committal proceedings the father accepted that he had on four occasions breached the injunction including sending a letter to the school where one of the foster carers' children was due to attend. The fifth allegation that the father had contacted the child via Facebook was denied.
The judge found all five allegations proved and committed the father to a 3-month suspended prison sentence. The father appealed.
On the evidence the judge was entitled to find the fifth allegation proved and to regard the letter as the most serious breach with the intention to disrupt the foster carers. The judge had been entirely justified in imposing the 3-month suspended sentence.
