August 12, 2016
Source: BBC
A mother borrowed £30,000 before taking her daughter to Cambodia for more than two years, a court has heard.
The woman, who admits child abduction, took the girl, then aged eight, from her home in Devon and out of the UK in October 2013.
Exeter Crown Court heard the girl, now aged 11, is in foster care in a location unknown to her parents.
The woman was due to be sentenced but Judge Graham Cottle said he needed more details on the “unusual case”.
The 40-year-old mother, who cannot be named, took her daughter after a family court ordered her to grant the father access, the court heard.
Dubai, Vietnam, Cambodia
She said she had “lobbied the family court nine times” from abroad to say she wanted to be involved in the child proceedings and said the court made “no attempt” to contact her by email or telephone.
Judge Cottle said he needed more information on what efforts she had made to contact the UK authorities before he sentenced her for child abduction.
“If she disappeared with the child, that’s one thing, if she initiated contact that is another. It is quite important information,” he said.
The court heard the father had wanted more contact with his daughter, who was born when her parents relationship broke down in 2005.
But the mother was “obstructive” and had defied 23 court orders over the years.
Prosecutor Bathsheba Cassell said the mother took out £30,000 in loans six weeks before she boarded a plane to Dubai and then flew on to Vietnam and Cambodia.
She was extradited in July after two UK police officers flew to Cambodia to bring her back.
The woman has been remanded in custody until 25 August.
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