A WOMAN who signed off text messages to her estranged husband with a kiss was not being “flirtatious”, a family court judge has concluded.

The pair are embroiled in a family court dispute centred on their child.

Judge Farooq Ahmed had been 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 Farooq 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 Sussex and Kent, 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.

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