A couple have launched a last-ditch attempt to stop their two-year-old daughter being adopted. They previously lost custody of her after Cardiff council raised concerns including domestic violence.
In June an adoption panel approved the child's match to a new family. The biological parents were days from goodbye contact with the girl when the mother applied to Cardiff Family Court for leave to revoke a placement order. She told the court: "We acknowledge past mistakes and poor choices made in the past. We regret what has happened, but we have learnt from our experiences."
The parents admit concealing their relationship in the past but now live openly as a couple. They say they have overcome Class A drug addiction, found jobs, and had therapy to ensure they can care for their child in a stable environment. The mother told WalesOnline she would "fight until my last breath" to stop her daughter being adopted. Her latest application is the third time she has battled in court to care for the girl.
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In its summary of the case Cardiff Council said the father has a "long history" of domestic abuse and that in 2018 the mother reported him to police over "very serious allegations of abuse". Months after their daughter's birth the court made care and placement orders resulting in the couple losing custody.
At the time the court found that the father's "personal insecurities" in relationships triggered him to be abusive and violent in an attempt to "restore his self-esteem and sense of control". He was judged to be a "high risk to the general public".
The court deemed the mother to have minimised the "vicious" violent episode he had subjected her to in 2018. A drug test showed the father had used cocaine and cannabis "at medium levels" over a six-month period but he refused to accept the test results, according to the judgment.
The couple knew their relationship was a bar to the mother being allowed to care for the child so they "attempted to deceive" by claiming they were no longer together, the court found. "The mother simply cannot be relied upon to keep [the child] safe from her relationship with the father," the 2021 judgment read.
The mother later applied for permission to revoke the placement order but last year the court dismissed the application. During that case the mother claimed her relationship with the father was over but when the court requested phone analysis she admitted they were still together. She said she was "too frightened to declare this before because I thought it would destroy my application".
The court accepted the parents had progressed by finding employment and stable accommodation. But its judgment also deemed the mother to still lack insight into the risks posed by the father. There was no evidence the father had been through therapy to prevent domestic violence, the court found.
The parents were allowed to see the girl once a month until their final contact, which was scheduled for June. But after the mother applied for leave to revoke the placement order the adoption process was paused.
The mother was joined by the father at a hearing in June where they represented themselves. She submitted a document to the court saying they "do not hide" their relationship, adding: "What we do is totally transparent for all professionals to see... As a couple we have never been assessed to care for our daughter. We would like to be assessed."
In the document she wrote that the father has been in work for two years and that his supervisor has found him to be "punctual, hardworking, and reliable". The mother, who is also in work, added: "I am substance-free and I choose to continue to live a different life without drugs. [The father] does not drink alcohol, does not take hard drugs, but does admit to smoking small amounts of cannabis."
The mother said she and the father have been taking a therapy course to show the changes they have made. During the hearing Judge Jayne Scannell asked the mother for more details about the course. The mother said: "We delve into the past and what happened then and how we can make things better. We do homework on the lines of how, for example if [the father] annoyed me one day, we would get around that without having an argument.
"We've paid privately. It's sessions over Zoom with a trained and qualified therapist... At the end they'll write a report on everything we've done over the 12 sessions and include our homework."
The judge asked if the mother would be willing to disclose the therapist's findings ahead of the next hearing "no matter what they say". The mother replied: "Yes, no matter what they say."
The council's barrister Catrin Jenkins said there had not been "sufficient change in the parents' circumstances" since the previous judgment. She added that the girl "requires permanence" and "delaying that process further is detrimental to [the child's] welfare."
Judge Scannell adjourned the case to August. Following the hearing the mother told WalesOnline her addiction to Class A substances began in her early 20s when she started taking drugs with friends at weekends and "it took over my life", but she had not taken Class A substances since 2019 or cannabis since January 2021.
The mother said she and the father were both on drugs at the time of the domestic violence in 2018. "We've admitted we were in a terrible state," she added. "We would argue, we would fight, we would take crack cocaine. We have changed our lives. We are not those people."
She claimed that she was more than halfway through her pregnancy when a social worker told her the council would try to remove the baby from her custody. "I was devastated," she said. "I told them I'd do anything they wanted from me."
After giving birth she was told she could live with her daughter in a parent-and-baby foster placement for a period provided she ended her relationship with the father, she claimed. "I was emotional and frightened so I said I'd leave him," she added.
"My feet would stick to the carpet in the placement it was that dirty. It was horrendous. There were people taking heroin and giving me abuse because my baby was crying. But the bond I built with my baby over 16 weeks was unbreakable."
The mother said her time in the placement ended with a "negative assessment" because she did not see the father as a risk. But she claimed the father has never had a criminal conviction for violence against her.
After losing custody of the girl the mother felt there was a lack of support from social services. "We have had to pay privately to do the therapy course," she said. "They've not offered us any help. I've come off drugs, got a job, and passed my driving test all on my own.
"Most mothers wouldn't have the energy to keep fighting. They'd come out of the court and think it's over because it's so hard to appeal. I was heartbroken when I lost custody. But I will fight until my last breath. I will explore every route possible to make sure my daughter does not get adopted. There is no need for adoption when a child comes from a loving family."
WalesOnline attended the hearing under a new transparency pilot that allows media to report on family court cases. If you are aware of an upcoming Cardiff family court case that you believe we should cover you can let us know at conor.gogarty@walesonline.co.uk.
