A teenage boy who was left in Ghana over fears of gang violence could ‘fall back’ into it if he returns to London and ends up in care, the High Court has heard.
The boy, known as S, started a family court case after his parents enrolled him at a boarding school in the West African country.
They later left him abroad in March 2024, over concerns he was at risk of engaging in criminal activity or being killed due to knife crime in London.
Through lawyers, he has expressed his desire to return to the UK, where he was born, and live with his family again.
In written submissions for a hearing on Monday, Michael Gration KC, for the mother, said: ‘The mother has been clear throughout that S should not return to England.
‘She considers him to be at risk of serious physical harm or death if he does. She does not consider that she can keep S safe in England. She does not agree to S returning to the family home, and she will not care for him there.’
The boy had been involved in fights and tried to sell clothes and a phone that may have been stolen, while his mother found a kitchen knife outside the living room window, the court heard.
Giving evidence at court, a social worker who has worked with S said: ‘He does accept that he made some bad decisions that put him at risk and his view is that he would not return to that.’
The social worker stressed it would be ‘devastating’ if the boy was not allowed back into the family home and that going into care would be ‘likely to push him back to the periphery of what he was previously involved in’.
The social worker added, ‘I would not want him to go into care. The two better options are his parents or staying where he is.’
Deirdre Fottrell KC, for the boy, said in written submissions that he has described feeling ‘like an alien’ in Ghana.
She quoted him as saying: ‘I will forever be the foreign kid; I never wanted to be here, and I am so constrained in who I can speak to and the sorts of conversations I can have.
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‘I am socially anxious in a way that I was never before, even a year and a half later. I just don’t want to talk to people.’
She also said that moving between different schools in Ghana has ‘compounded his social isolation and left him with a profound sense that he is being punished’ by his parents.
The barrister added: ‘S has been taken to Ghana as a punishment and he has been left there without recourse to the protective framework that would be available to him in London.
‘It is submitted on S’s behalf that the stranding of him is similarly abusive to other cases where it has the aim of depriving a person of access to protections available to them in the UK.’
Rebecca Foulkes, for the father, said the parents accept that they did not tell their son they wanted to leave him in Ghana before they went because they were ‘worried about his reaction’.
She also said the father wants him to remain in Ghana at least until after he has completed his GCSEs.
Ms Foulkes added: ‘Whilst there are emotional risks to S of an ongoing separation from his family, those risks can be ameliorated by regular contact and spending time together during school holidays.
‘In contrast, a return to the UK places S at risk of resuming his earlier associations and increasing his risk-taking behaviours as well as further disruption to his education and the potential for a deterioration in family relationships.’
The hearing, before Mrs Justice Theis, is due to conclude on Wednesday.