“Judge: What has been the impact on her of knowing he has these convictions? Mother: There is a big fear; and big, big fear factor. She gets worried that something may happen to mum, and to her mum is everybody. Judge: Presumably you can’t keep secret the fact that there are measures to guard against the risk. Mother: That’s right. I have had to start including her as to the knowledge of those things. She is a bright young girl and understands they need to be there.”
“In the absence of any provision to the contrary, any injunction would ordinarily terminate on the discharge of wardship proceedings. It is, however, open to the court, if it deems necessary to direct that an injunction made during the currency of wardship proceedings do continue after their discharge.”
“1. This case raises novel questions about the court’s inherent jurisdiction in relation to vulnerable adults. I have before me a vulnerable young woman who has just turned 18 and has therefore attained her majority. While she was still a child the court had exercised its inherent parens patriae and wardship jurisdictions to protect her from the risk of an unsuitable arranged marriage. The question is whether I have jurisdiction to continue that protection now she is an adult. 2. The question arises because expert evidence establishes that this young woman, although undoubtedly vulnerable, equally undoubtedly has the capacity to marry. In other words the case raises the question of whether the inherent jurisdiction in relation to adults can be exercised for the protection of vulnerable adults who do not, as such, lack capacity. In my judgment, the jurisdiction can be so exercised. And I propose to exercise the jurisdiction in this particular case, so that a young woman who remains just as vulnerable now she is an adult as she did when she was still a child, should not be suddenly deprived of the protection which the court has hitherto felt it necessary to afford her and which I believe is still very much required in her best interests.”
“It would in my opinion be a sad failure were the law to determine that [the court] has no jurisdiction to investigate and, if necessary, to make declarations as to T’s best interests to ensure that the protection that she has received belatedly in her minority is not summarily withdrawn simply because she has attained the age of 18.”
“There is, however, in my judgment a common thread to all this. The inherent jurisdiction can be invoked wherever a vulnerable adult is, or is reasonably believed to be, for some reason deprived of the capacity to make the relevant decision, or disabled from making a free choice, or incapacitated or disabled from giving or expressing a real and genuine consent. The cause may be, but is not for this purpose limited to, mental disorder or mental illness. A vulnerable adult who does not suffer from any kind of mental incapacity may nonetheless be entitled to the protection of the inherent jurisdiction if he is, or is reasonably believed to be, incapacitated from making the relevant decision by reason of such things as constraint, coercion, undue influence or other vitiating factors.”