ATTU vs. ATTU

The applicant father and the respondent mother were divorced in 1977. Custody of their two minor children, Samuel Wolanyo Attu and Alexandra Akoffa Attu, was granted to the respondent in 1982, with access rights to the applicant and an arrangement for the children to spend parts of school holidays with each parent. In 1982 the respondent remarried and relocated to Britain with the children. When the children later visited Ghana in 1986, the applicant obtained an interim order restraining the respondent from taking them back to Britain pending determination of his application for custody. Despite service of that order, the respondent left Ghana with the children while the application was pending. The court nevertheless proceeded to determine which parent should have custody, focusing on the children’s welfare, their long residence and settlement in Britain, and the applicant’s delay in seeking custody. Portion of judgment: “the respondent was granted custody of the children in 1982, with right of access… In the same year of 1982, the respondent was remarried and she left Ghana for Britain with her new husband. She took the two children with her… the applicant obtained a court order restraining the respondent from taking the children to Britain… the respondent left the country with the two children without the knowledge and authority of the applicant or this court…”