A three-judge appeal court has exported to the UK the custody case of a 10-year-old girl, Ella Bridge, so that an English court will decide the future of the child, after the Constitutional Court in Malta had decided the girl should remain in Malta.

Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo, Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon and Mr Justice Robert Mangion accepted the request for Ella to be sent back to the UK where her mother lives, so that an English court could decide.

The decision was handed down in the appeal lodged by the attorney general and the Social Standards Department after Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi decided in the Constitutional Court that Ella should remain in Malta with her father, who had brought her up.

The appeal court said the right to a family life had been breached. It was not a matter of just the father’s right, there had to be a balance in relation to the rights of all parties concerned, including the mother, who had instituted the procedures because her family rights had been violated.

When it was decided that someone should seize the child, no regard was being given to the rights for a fair hearing which the mother had, and to the respect for a family life.

The appeal court said that the best interests of the child are the most important factor in this scenario and now these same interests of the minor must be protected when she goes to UK, according to the Hague Convention. One must not ignore the fact that the father of the child had taken the law into his own hands when he seized the child and brought her to Malta.

The court appreciated the wish of the father to accompany his daughter when she goes back to the UK, but it also appreciated that this could mean serious inconveniences. There must be the least possible hardship, more so in the interests of the child.

Everything should be decided in the interest of all those involved and this should be done according to the law and not by some unilateral action by one party or the other.

The case goes back to 2010 when Richard Bridge and Niki Lee divorced and the father came to Malta with his new family. Shortly after he left, his former wife started legal proceedings for her daughter to be returned to England.

In October two years ago an English court said that the child had been taken out of the country illegally, following which the Standards and Social Welfare Director started legal action according to the international convention on the abduction of children. The father appealed the sentence, but the appeal was declared null for having been filed late. The father then took the case to the constitutional court.

The latter decided that Ella Bridge should remain in Malta with her father and her new family. Mr Justice Azzopardi ruled that if the child were to be removed from her family environment her fundamental rights would be breached.