Re R (A Minor) (Wardship; Consent to Treatment) [1992] Fam 11; [1991] 3 WLR 592; [1991] 4 All ER 177; [1992] 1 FLR 190; [1992] 2 FCR 229; The Times, 31 July 1991; The Independent, 25 July 1991, CA (Lord Donaldson MR, Staughton and Farquharson LJJ)
I represented the father whose child, aged 15, suffered from a fluctuating mental disability. She absconded from a children’s home and attacked her parents. She was placed in the psychiatric ward of a hospital and then was transferred to an adolescent psychiatric unit. She was given sedative medication with her consent. A doctor wished to administer anti-psychotic medication. The child refused to consent. She was Gillick competent. The Court decided that Gillick competence was not the appropriate test and the court in its wardship jurisdiction could decide whether or not to consent having regard to welfare as the paramount consideration.
Charles Geekie for the local authority, Miss V Gilbert for the father and James Munby QC for the child.
Several national newspapers wanted to interview my client or me but my client did not want this. They ran the story anyway.