Blandy & Blandy’s leading Family Law team has advised on a reported case, FAZ v MAZ (Private Law: Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Child) [2026] EWFC 131.
A ‘reported case’ is a judgment published in law reports, which serves as a written record of a matter decided by a court. These cases are significant as they form a body of case law and set legal precedents on which future decisions may be based.
The case, heard in the Family Court at the Royal Courts of Justice, involved serious allegations of sexual abuse by the father towards their then eleven-year-old child.
The Court delivered a powerful ruling, clearing the father of all allegations of sexual abuse and concluding that years of anxiety, distrust and distorted beliefs led the mother to misinterpret ordinary parenting as abusive. The judge found that none of the allegations were proved and ordered that all professionals involved with the child be informed that the father did not sexually abuse his daughter. The mother’s conduct - though rooted in genuine, but unfounded, fear - had been emotionally and psychologically harmful to the child, leading to a prolonged and unnecessary separation from her father, step‑family and grandmother. The court said it may take “a great deal of work and commitment” to repair the damage, if it can be fully repaired at all.
The judgment describes how the child, a bright but sensitive girl, already struggling with bereavement, bullying, sleep problems and school pressures, became increasingly vulnerable in late 2023. Living with a mother in a heightened emotional state, she began to reframe past events through the lens of abuse, absorbing her mother’s anxiety and long‑held views about the father and interpreting innocent behaviour - such as her father cuddling her to help her sleep - as something sinister. Although one allegation emerged spontaneously in a police interview, the judge found that the child had been influenced by her mother’s narrative, adding inaccurate details and imagining conduct that had not occurred. The mother did not deliberately coach her daughter, but her actions - isolating the child, escalating concerns to professionals, arranging therapy for “trauma” that never happened - encouraged the child to adopt and reinforce a false story of abuse.
Janet Bazley KC and Lucy Sprinz, of 1GC Family Law, were instructed by Associate Elizabeth Owen on behalf of the father (the applicant).
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