Looking up with piercing green eyes, Ella Bridge, 10, exposes her fear of being separated from her family and returned to her estranged biological mother in the UK.
It would be highly prejudicial for Ella to be taken away from Malta and sent to an uncertain future in England
“I’m worried I have to go back to England. I love my family and I don’t want to be split up. I like it here in Malta,” Ella said in a strong voice, albeit fully aware that her future hangs in the balance of the law courts.
According to her father Richard Bridge, the girl’s express wishes were never properly heard and are the reason why he, represented by lawyer Aron Mifsud Bonnici, has filed a constitutional case claiming a breach of Ella’s right to a fair hearing.
The application, filed on Friday against the Attorney General and the Social Welfare Standards Department Director, also states the right to family and family life according to the European Convention for Human Rights have been violated.
The heart-rending custody battle for little Ella started in September 2010 when the divorce proceedings were finalised and Mr Bridge decided to start a new life in Malta with his partner Julia Dyson Bridge, now his wife, her son Elliott, 10, and Ella.
“I felt like I had left all my troubles behind. We started a new life in Malta and we were very happy, until we got a knock on our door a month later,” Mr Bridge told The Sunday Times.
As the girl’s primary carer, despite retaining joint parental responsibilities with his ex-wife Nicki Lee, Mr Bridge did not realise that under the Hague Convention he had to first ask Ms Lee permission before leaving the UK with Ella.
Seeing that no more money would be forthcoming after the divorce, Ms Lee, according to the court application, requested the department director to start procedures against Mr Bridge under the international abduction of minors listed in the Hague Convention.
Under the convention there is, however, a provision stating that if one parent, in this case Ms Lee, was not exercising her right of custody, taking a child out of the country would not be an offence.
The Bridge family has spent the past two years entangled in legal proceedings, haemorrhaging thousands of euros as they sought legal advice in Malta and the UK to keep Ella on the island.
Through an unfortunate turn of events, their appeal against the Family Court’s decision to return Ella to the UK was considered null and void due to a procedural technicality as it was filed two days late.
This was a huge setback and the girl’s fate hung in limbo as her father attempted, but failed, to get the Attorney General to reconsider.
Friday’s constitutional case is now the 40-year-old engineer’s last-ditch attempt at keeping his new family intact.
The court application describes how 18 months before Mr Bridge came to Malta Ms Lee had already abandoned her family, including Ella. To date Ms Lee has also refused any attempts by the Bridge family to correspond with Ella through Skype and the internet.
The young girl quickly integrated in Maltese life, attending St Clare College primary school, picking up the language and becoming part of the Malta Girl Guides.
“It would be highly prejudicial for Ella to be taken away from Malta and sent to an uncertain future in England,” the application states, pointing out that Ms Lee had never lived alone with Ella and “suffered from a psychological disorder” that had led to marriage breakdown.
“Ella has no connection with the UK, except her mother who abandoned her; who has never made any contact with her, never bothered to visit her in Malta nor even send a simple card.”
In the application, Mr Bridge is also contesting that Ella, who is “sufficiently mature” to understand the implications of the judicial process, was never given an adequate opportunity to express her views and wishes.
The Family Court judge had once had a very short meeting with Ella in his chambers more than a year ago but according to Mr Bridge she was only asked if she liked Malta.
Ella, the application adds, has consistently expressed her opposition to being forcefully returned to the UK and questioned why she was never asked for her opinion in such an important matter deciding her fate.
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, “parties shall assure to the child, who is capable of forming his or her own views, the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child”.
It also states the child should be offered the “opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings”.
Sipping coffee at Sliema’s Independence Gardens as Ella and Elliott hold hands and skip through the pathways hunting for cats, Mr Bridge says his only wish is that his daughter’s voice is heard.