A 12-year-old boy will be allowed to live with his father in Gozo after a magistrate heard that although he loved his mother, he did not want to live with her in England because he feared he would end up "in crime like my brother".

Magistrate Paul Coppini, presiding over the Gozo courts, dismissed the application filed by the UK's Director of Social Welfare Standards requesting that the boy be sent back to England to his mother.

The magistrate heard how the mother and father got married in the UK in January 1986 after which they moved to Gozo for 15 years.

After that the couple and their three children - two boys and a girl - went back to live in England.

But the father could not get accustomed to living there and suffered a mental breakdown. He went back to live in Gozo leaving the rest of his family behind.

When the elder son and the daughter turned 15 they moved to Gozo to live with their father. The mother obtained a residence order in 2002, from the UK courts, over the younger son. The marriage was dissolved in 2005.

Then, at the beginning of July 2006, the younger son was sent to Gozo to spend the usual summer holidays there with his father but, following an application filed by the father, the Maltese courts ordered that the boy was to remain under his provisional care and custody.

That was when the Director of Social Welfare Standards in the UK filed an application against the father requesting the Gozo court to declare that the continued retention of the boy was wrongful under the principles of the Hague Convention.

Magistrate Coppini heard the elder son explain how he had returned to Malta for good some three years ago as he was getting involved in drugs, which he also took in his mother's presence, and even got in trouble with the police.

The magistrate also heard the younger son, around whom the case revolved, say that he did not want to go back to live in England "because it's not safe and I am happy with my brother and sister... I don't want to end up in crime like my brother," he said.

The boy, who is now 12, explained how he had seen his aunt take drugs in the presence of his mother and her partner and he had even tried taking drugs.

He added that, although he did not want to go back to England, he still loved his mother and wished to see her.

The magistrate ruled that "there is a grave risk that the minor child's return to England would expose him to both physical and psychological harm and also place him in an intolerable situation".

The magistrate also took into account the boy's view on the matter and the fact that no proof had been provided that adequate arrangements were made to secure the protection of the boy after his return.

He turned down the application and ordered that a copy of the judgment be sent to the Central Authority of England and Wales.

Names are not being published to protect the identity of the minor.

Lawyer Anglu Farrugia represented the father and the boy.