Judge rules that woman can move with children aged six and three to US state where Mormon church is based

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A Briton who wanted to stop his former partner taking their children to live in an American state where the Mormon church is based has lost a family court fight.

The Mormon woman asked a judge to allow her to move their six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to Utah.

She told Mr Justice Bodey that she had married an American Mormon construction worker and wanted to join him in the US. Her former partner objected and said their daughter might be “treated in an inferior way” in Utah.

But Bodey approved the woman’s relocation application. Details of the case have emerged in a ruling by the judge following a private family court hearing in Middlesbrough.

The children had lived with their mother after she and their father separated, the judge heard. She said her ex-partner had “lost interest” in seeing the children.

Bodey, who is based in the family division of the high court in London, concluded that a move to Utah would be in the children’s best interests and said the pros outweighed the cons.

The judge said there was no evidence that the little girl would suffer inferior treatment and the mother’s plans were realistic and thought through. Evidence suggested that she would be better off financially and the judge said she would be living with her husband in a place where she wanted to “make her life”.

She had said she wanted the children to grow up knowing their father and his family.