A woman who ended text messages with a kiss was not being "flirtatious" with her estranged husband, a judge has ruled.
The couple, who remain anonymous, are in the middle of a Family Court dispute involving their child.
Judge Farooq Ahmed had been asked to make "findings of fact" after the woman accused the man of abusing her.
The man, who denied the allegations, told Judge Ahmed that the woman "repeatedly" signed off her text messages to him with an "x", signalling a kiss.
He argued that the text kisses were "flirtatious" and that the woman would not have sent them if she had really regarded him as an abuser.
But Judge Ahmed disagreed and said that a kiss was "just her way of signing off".
The details of the argument emerged after they were published by Judge Ahmed, who hears private family cases in Kent and Sussex.
He wrote: "The father relies upon numerous text messages ... in which the mother repeatedly signs off with a kiss.
"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 did not identify anyone involved and concluded that the man had abused the woman on a number of occasions during their marriage.
The judge's ruling comes ahead of the publication of the government's draft Domestic Abuse Bill which is to include new domestic abuse protection notices and orders,
The bill will also lead to the creation a Domestic Abuse Commissioner responsible for monitoring services, raising awareness and making recommendations to authorities.
Additional reporting by PA
