‘Handle with Care’: intimate images in children law proceedings (admissibility and management)

Damian Woodward-Carlton QC Barrister 42 Bedford Row 
Rachael Claridge 1 Crown Office Row

Re M (A Child – Private Law Children Proceedings – Case Management – Intimate Images) (2022) EWHC 986 (Fam).

This article summarises and discusses the useful guidance case in relation to the admission and management of intimate images.

Mrs Justice Knowles made case management decisions about the use of intimate images in a private law children case in the High Court.  She noted that this was an issue which is increasingly common in the context of allegations of domestic and/or sexual abuse (be they of specific sexual acts or more pervasive coercive control).

The Judge having considered the specific facts of this case and made decisions about the intimate images on which the parties sought to rely (both to support and rebut allegations) went on to set out useful guidance for courts on the admission and management of such images - the essential starting point being that 'sexually explicit or intimate videos and photographs should not be filed as part of evidence  without a written application being made to the court in advance.'

The full article will be...