A YOUNG solicitor is taking a case involving a Huddersfield family to the highest court in the land.
Naomi Belsham-Harris, 26, will support a barrister at the House of Lords next month in a battle to keep two young girls with their mum in Huddersfield.
The assistant solicitor works at Armitage Sykes on Macaulay Street.
She said: “I don’t know if a case from Huddersfield has ever gone so far before so it’s unusual. It’s a surprise to be going there within five months of qualifying and it’s been a really good experience.”
Naomi represents Vimbai Mutebuka, a Huddersfield-based woman who “abducted” her two daughters, aged ten and 13, from Zimbabwe.
Last month the Court of Appeal ruled that the girls should be returned to their father in the impoverished country.
But on November 21, a legal team including Naomi will try to persuade the House of Lords to overturn the decision. She said: “The main issue is the problem of the children being returned to Zimbabwe. We are appealing against that on the grounds that they are settled in the Huddersfield area and don’t want to be returned.
“We’re concerned about their human rights and the human rights of our client.”
Naomi was given the case by solicitor Jeff Woodward. She said: “I mentioned on my first day at work that I had studied Zimbabwe as part of my history degree at Sheffield University, so he passed the case on to me.
“It has been very challenging but Jeff has supervised me throughout.”
