A North-East father fighting for access to his daughter has won a landmark legal ruling.

But campaigners fear he will still be prevented from forging a relationship with the girl despite the court victory.

The Court of Appeal has overturned an earlier decision at Teesside County Court which barred the Middlesbrough man from seeing the six-year-old.

Lord Justice Thorpe, sitting with Lord Justice Carnwath and the president of the High Court Family Division, Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, described the original ruling as "little short of perverse".

The court had been told how the father refused to give up on his daughter despite relentless opposition from the mother who was determined to "shut him out" of the girl's life.

The couple separated in 1999 but remained on friendly terms and even took the child on a holiday to Disneyland, but the relationship later deteriorated and, amid the mother's claims of domestic violence, she obtained a court non-molestation order against the father.

Now the father's contact application will be reconsidered by another judge in light of the Appeal Court ruling and a report from a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist.

But Tony Coe, president of the Equal Parenting Council, said it is unlikely the new judge will come to a different conclusion to the original one at Teesside.

"We see this happening in family courts every day," said Mr Coe. "It may seem obvious, but what is needed is a legal presumption of parenting time for all fit parents.

"We have a very powerful campaign going through Parliament which aims to achieve this, but until then, we will see many more cases like this one."

Full story in The Northern Echo tomorrow.