Order of Comittal

" By orders dated the 3rd day of July 1998 as subsequently varied on 18 September 1998, 25 November 1998, 20 January 1999, 11 March 1999 and 7 February 2000 (SEE ATTACHED HERETO)

Upon the application by the Petitioner by notice of Motion dated 18th October 2000.

AND UPON HEARING Counsel for the Petitioner, Counsel for the respondent and Counsel for the Official Solicitor

AND UPON READING the affidavit of Peter Stewart Smith sworn on 12 October 2000, Charles Oliver 12 October 2000, "The mother" sworn on 13 October 2000, " The mothers boyfriend" sworn 13 October 2000, Lianne Verna Katibeh sworn 16 October 2000, Mark Dean Harris sworn on 8 December 2000 and "the mother" sworn on 4 January 2001.

And the respondent accepting that a copy of the said orders and said summons have been served upon the Respondent Mark Dean Harris,

AND having taken the oral evidence of "the mother", "the mothers boyfriend", Lianne Verna Katibeh, and Mark Dean Harris

AND UPON it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the said Mark Dean Harris has been guilty of contempt of Court namely that;

1) On 2 April 2000 he approached the children (eldest), (middle) and (youngest) outside Chaplins superstore in Plymouth and talked to them there by breaching paragraph (h) of the order,

2) Shortly before 20 April he sent to the mother through the post a cheque for £900 post dated to 29 April 2000, with a note stating that the Cheque could be cashed if (the eldest) attended the next session of contact and continued to attend contact, thereby breaching paragraphs (d) and (i) of the order,

3)On April 25 2000 he did enter (road A) in a car seeking contact or communication with the children and driving past the mother thereby breaching paragraphs (a) (d) and (h) of the order,

4) On 26 April 2000 he did hand birthday presents to (middle) and (youngest) during the session of contact and without the presents first having been approved by Plymouth City Council thereby breaching paragraph (h) of the order,

5) On 27 june 2000 he left a note for (the youngest) in one of her school books after attending an evening at (her school) to discuss her work and without the note first having been approved by Plymouth City Council thereby breaching paragraph (h) of the order,

6) On 7 August 2000 he entered (road A) , Plymouth, in a car seeking contact or communication with the children and driving past waving to the mother and the children thereby breaching paragraphs (a) (d) & (h) of the order,

7) On 24 August 2000 he entered (road A) in a car seeking contact or communication with the children and driving past the mother and the children thereby breaching paragraphs (a) (d) and (h) of the order,

8) Shortly before 30 August 2000 he sent or caused to be sent through the post to (the eldest) an article from "Families Need Fathers" and without the article first having been approved by Plymouth City Council thereby breaching paragraph (h) of the order,

9) On 5 October 2000 he entered (road A) in a car seeking contact or communication with the children thereby breaching paragraphs (a) and (h) of the order,

10) On 7 October 2000 he approached (the eldest) in New George Street, Plymouth and spoke to her thereby breaching paragraph (h) of the order.

It is ordered that;

(1) for each of his said contempts 1 and 10 above the Contemnor Mark Dean Harris do pay a fine of £250 each (total £500) to be paid within 12 months from today,

(2) for each of his said contempts 2,4,5. and 8 above the Contemnor Mark Dean Harris do stand committed to Her Majesty's Prison at Pentonville for a period of 4 months or until he shall be sooner discharged by due course of Law (these sentences to run concurrently with each other)

(3) for each of his said contempts 3,6,7 and 9 above the Contemnor Mark Dean Harris do stand committed to Her Majesty's Prison at Pentonville for a period of 6 months or until he shall be sooner discharged by due course of law (the sentences to run concurrently with each other but consecutively to the sentences in (2) above

AND the Contemnor Mark Dean Harris can apply to the Judge to purge his contempt and ask for release,

And it is further ordered that any application for the release of the said Mark Dean Harris from custody shall be made to a Judge,

And it is further ordered that there be no order for costs, save that there be detailed assessment of the publicly funded costs of the assisted parties,

DATED 23 MARCH 2001.

June 2001 Comment by Mark Harris:

It should be noted that throughout the period these heinous crimes were committed, I had a contact order for unsupervised contact.

Someone should explain as to why the mother breaching the Contact order (see breach (2) ) attached no penalty for her at all, but got me 4 months for trying to bribe her to comply with the order ?

And, perhaps someone can tell me the logic of giving me four months for giving the children birthday presents on an unsupervised contact (breach 4). ?

I think this particular piece of Judicial abuse of power should be recorded for future history, as this sort of behaviour is in the class of the Nazi extremes, and in future may be viewed in the same category by historians.

Mark Harris

LINKS:

• 2001- Judge Munby uses Journalist Joshua Rozenberg to publicly humiliate a father who has fought against the anti-father Family Court System.
  
• 2003: Mark Harris's children defy Judge Munby's wishes by voting with their feet to re-uninite with their Dad. Read more
  
• April 2004: Judge Munby launches an extraordinary attack on the family justice system for failing separated fathers and their children. He said he was ashamed.
  Read about Munby's extra-ordinary outburst