A case where the judge ruled that a child should live with his paternal grandparents, even though his father was found guilty of killing his mother shows that the welfare of the child is of primary importance.
Despite attempts by the victim’s family to have their grandson sent abroad with them, the judge decided that in this case it was better that he lived with the paternal grandparents. It was successfully argued that the six-year-old boy had a closer relationship with his UK-based parents than his maternal grandparents several thousand miles away in China.
The boy was said to be deeply traumatised by the murder of his mother and the upheaval of having to go and live in China and learn to speak Chinese as well as spend the rest of his life with people he had only met once in his life was viewed as not in the child’s best interests.
Research from past cases has shown that children tend to do better when they are brought up by their maternal grandparents in such cases, however the judge acknowledged that in the case the family fully accepted the guilt of his father and did not place any responsibility on the mother for what happened.