A judge has criticised Tower Hamlets council for misleading the High Court in its attempts to stop several girls fleeing Britain to join Islamic State (Isis). In comments unreported by the press Mr Justice Hayden, in the Family Division, said the police had been wrong-footed by the council’s court proceedings and Tower Hamlets “consciously misrepresented the extent of the police awareness of this application”.
Hayden had made the five girls wards of court, which meant they would have to seek permission of the court before going abroad. Tower Hamlets then successfully applied for an order to confiscate their passports, “a very significant incursion into the individual’s freedom and personal autonomy”, according to Hayden. Council officers had claimed the police had agreed this was the way to proceed, but this was untrue.
AL's LAW 