Sealing a text with a kiss is not ‘flirtatious’, judge rules

SIGNING text messages with an X is not “flirtatious”, a judge has ruled.

Presiding over a case in the family court between an estranged husband and wife, Judge Farooq Ahmed said messages from her to him were simply a “way of signing off ”.

The couple are embroiled in a dispute centred on their child and Judge Ahmed was asked to make “findings of fact” after the woman accused the man of abusing her.

He denied the abuse and told the judge that the woman “repeatedly” signed off text messages she sent to him with a kiss.

The man said the kiss sign-off, denoted by an X, was “flirtatious”.

He said she would not have attached a kiss to messages if she “really” regarded him as an abuser.

But Judge Ahmed disagreed and said a kiss was “just her way of signing off ”.

Detail of the kiss argument emerged in a ruling published by the judge, who hears cases in Kent and Sussex, following a private family court hearing. He did not identify anyone involved.

“The father relies upon numerous text messages... in which the mother repeatedly signs off with a kiss,” said the judge in his ruling.

“He regards this as flirtatious and not something that she would have done had she really regarded him as an abuser.

“I find that the mother was not being flirtatious. It was just her way of signing off. The father is wrong to read anything into it.”

Judge Ahmed concluded that the man had abused the woman on a number of occasions during their marriage.