A 14-year-old boy lost the court case he filed against his parents after he moved his parents from London to Ghana to attend boarding school. The boy said his parents deceived him to go to Africa, claiming it was a visit to a sick relative.
He said if he knew he was being sent to a boarding school, “I wouldn’t be able to agree.’’
The London High Court also received news from his parents, saying they were worried that he would be “touched” in the crime.
In a written statement to the court, the teenager said:
“I feel like I live in hell. I really don’t think I deserve this, I want to go back to the UK as soon as possible.”
The boy, who has lived in the UK since he was born, said he was “dreamed” and “never settled” in a school in Ghana.
“I hardly understand what’s going on, I can fight.”
I was so scared and desperate that I emailed the High Commission of the UK in Accra and contacted charities and families at the border, and he is believed to be in contact with lawyers from the International Family Law Group. ”
He wrote: “I am from London, England and I want to go home.”
He said he was “abused” at the school, adding: “I begged to go back to my old school.”
“In many ways, this is both a sober and frustrating conclusion,” said High Court Justice Hayden in his judgment.
He said he was satisfied with his parents’ desire to move to Ghana “driven by their deep, obvious and unconditional love.”
He said the boy was at risk of suffering greater harm to return to the UK.
He said the boy’s parents believed “and, by my judgment, “their son” was at least related to gang culture and showed an unhealthy interest in knives.”
The boy’s father told the judge that the couple did not want their son to be “another black teenager on the streets of London ST@Bed to D3ath”.
The High Court heard that the boy’s parents had sent him because they were worried about his safety in London.
His mother said in a statement that sending him to Africa was “not a punishment, but a measure to protect him.”
She mentioned the murder of 14-year-old boy Kelyan Bokassa, who had murdered on a Wolvech bus in January. “That’s every parent’s worst nightmare,” she said.
She said she did not believe her son would survive in the UK and did not want to be part of her son’s “destruction”.
Rebecca Foulkes, the attorney representing the boy’s father, said the boy had 11 points on a list produced by the children’s charity NSPCC to show whether the child might be joining a gang or being committed in a crime.
These include absent from school, unexplained money, buying new things and carrying weapons.
His school claimed it was “suspected that he was engaged in criminal activities” and observed him in expensive clothes and cell phones.
The boy said he had never been a part of the gang and had not been “involved in any way”. He said he “didn’t know anyone involved in the gang” and did not carry a knife.
In his statement, he acknowledged that “my behavior was not the best” and said he believed it was the reason his parents sent him to Africa.
In a statement issued after the verdict, his parents said: “This is a very difficult time for all of us.”
Our priority has always been to protect our son, and now our focus is to move forward as a family. ”
