A 14 -year -old teenager recently won a legal battle against his parents in Britain whom he accused of deceiving him to travel to Ghana and preventing him from returning home, the country's media reported.
The unidentified teenager and his lawyers told a London Court of Appeal that his parents cheated him to fly to Ghana under the pretext of visiting a sick relative, just to be registered in a boarding school in the African country.
Despite the best efforts of the 14 -year -old boy to return to his country, his parents prevented him from doing so, so he found some lawyers and took them to court.
Initially, the Superior Court of London failed in favor of the parents, who claimed that they had in mind the best interests of the child when they flew to Ghana, but a court of appeal recently revoked that verdict and stood aside from the teenager, considering that his freedom of choice had been infringed.
In the original judgment, the judge of the Superior Court, Mr. Justice Hayden, said that the decision of the parents to deceive him to fly to Ghana was determined by “his deep, obvious and unconditional love,” since he would have run the risk of suffering greater damage when staying in London.
The parents' lawyers told the Court that the adolescent had developed an interest in the local gang culture and “exhibited an unhealthy interest in the knives.”
“The parents found themselves in a totally incidious decision when they made the decision they made,” parents' lawyers said to the court. “Ghana provided a safe shelter, separated from those who exposed him to risk. The least harmful option is that he remains in Ghana.”
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In the light of evidence on the “miserable” condition of the child in Ghana, the Court of Appeals of London recently revoked the original verdict. According to the reports, he told the court that he felt he was “living in hell”, “he could barely understand what was happening” in the African boarding school and that his companions “mocked” there.
“It is culturally displaced and alienated,” said Deirdre Fotrelll, the adolescent's lawyer. “He is considered abandoned by his family. He feels he is a British child, a child in London.”
The 14 -year -old remains in Ghana, but his lawyers expect the verdict of the Court of Appeals to be a step in the right direction and will soon allow him to return to London.