A FATHER has won the chance to reapply for contact with his daughter in a landmark victory at the Appeal Court, in London.

The court was told that despite opposition from the mother of his six-year-old daughter, the man had refused to give up the fight to see his child.

Yesterday Lord Justice Thorpe, sitting with the president of the High Court Family Division, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, and Lord Justice Carnwath, gave him fresh hope of seeing the girl.

Dame Elizabeth said the couple, who never married, separated in 1999 and the mother went back to her parents' home with her baby daughter.

The judge said they started on good terms but the relationship deteriorated and, amidst the mother's allegations of domestic violence against the father, she obtained a court non-molestation order against him.

The police were then called when he tried to deliver birthday, Christmas and Easter presents.

A Middlesbrough County Court judge last year refused to grant the father direct contact with his daughter and he was barred from making any further contact applications for a year.

But overturning the decision, Dame Elizabeth said: "Although the father had a somewhat aggressive manner, his desire for contact was genuine and the failure of contact was to be placed principally on the shoulders of the mother who had no intention of making contact work."

The Appeal Court's decision means the father's contact application will now be reconsidered by another judge following reports from a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist who will assess the family and the prospects of future contact between father and daughter.