PART IIIN.I.ORDERS WITH RESPECT TO CHILDREN IN FAMILY PROCEEDINGS

GeneralN.I.

[F1Residence and contact orders and domestic violenceN.I.

12A.—(1) Where a court is considering whether to make a residence or contact order in favour of [F2—

(a)any person, the court shall have regard to any conviction of the person for a domestic abuse offence involving the child,

(b)] a prohibited person, the court shall consider whether the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering any harm through seeing or hearing ill-treatment of another person by the prohibited person.

[F3(1A) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a), a domestic abuse offence involving the child is—

(a)an offence under section 1 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 if—

(i)the offence is aggravated as provided for in section 9 of that Act, and

(ii)the aggravation of the offence relates to the child, or

(b)an offence of any kind (apart from one under section 1 of that Act) if—

(i)the offence is aggravated as provided for in section 15 of that Act, and

(ii)the child is not the person against whom the offence was committed but the aggravation of the offence relates to the child.]

(2) A person is a prohibited person for the purposes of [F4paragraph (1)(b)] if either he is or the court considers that he should be prohibited by a non-molestation order under the Family Homes and Domestic Violence (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 from molesting another person.

(3) Paragraph (1) is without prejudice to Article 3 [F5(and in that paragraph neither sub-paragraph limits the effect of the other sub-paragraph) ] .]