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A recent High Court ruling has overturned a Family Court decision made by Judge Robin Tolson KC, who had permitted overnight contact between a father under police investigation for rape and his three young children. The father had acknowledged committing domestic abuse, including acts of violence and coercive control, while the mother alleged that he had also raped her. High Court Judge Michael Keehan criticized Judge Tolson for dismissing the serious allegations merely because they were under police inquiry, ruling that the case must be reconsidered.
The mother, referred to as Anna, appealed Judge Tolson’s judgment made in March 2025 during her case at Reading Family Court. She contended that her ex-partner’s contact with their children should be severely limited and supervised. Anna detailed multiple years of abuse, including rape, emotional and verbal mistreatment, and attempted strangulation. At the time Judge Tolson issued his ruling, the police investigation into these allegations was still ongoing. Despite this, Judge Tolson concluded that the family court did not need to wait for the investigation to finish or to conduct its own inquiry.
Concerns have been raised regarding Judge Tolson’s history of handling such cases. Six years ago, he faced criticism for his outdated perspectives on rape, which included the view that a woman could not be raped if she did not physically resist her partner. This earlier judgment was overturned by Mrs Justice Russell in 2020, after which Judge Tolson resigned from his position as a senior judge in London. Barrister Elisabeth Traugott, representing Anna, urged Judge Tolson to recuse himself from the ongoing case due to remarks that echoed his prior controversial statements. Nevertheless, Judge Tolson maintained that he did not accept the previous criticisms of his approach to consent.
The judge’s past rulings have frequently been contested and overturned. In 2021, three senior judges described his handling of evidence in a domestic abuse and rape allegation case as “seriously flawed,” noting that he had wrongly characterized a victim as mentally troubled rather than as a survivor of abuse. Further criticism followed in 2024 when an appeal court challenged his decision allowing unsupervised contact between a father and his children despite abuse claims. More recently, in 2025, a High Court judge overturned his ruling permitting unsupervised video contact for a father who had pleaded guilty to assault. The broader context reveals that domestic abuse is a factor in nearly 90% of family court cases, according to a report by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, highlighting the urgency for systemic improvements. The government has expressed commitment to enhancing the experience of families involved in private law disputes, particularly where abuse or other serious offenses are present
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