Parental Kidnapping – Va. mother faces kidnapping charges

September 29 , 2014

Source: charlestondailymail 

A Virginia woman wanted by police after allegedly kidnapping her three children was arrested in Kanawha County.

State Police stopped Lisa Ann Cantrell, 50, of Pound, Va., late Saturday on the West Virginia Turnpike in Kanawha County. Cantrell was wanted for kidnapping her three children, a 17-year-old boy, and two girls, aged 12 and 9.

The Wise County (Va.) Sheriff’s Office issued information about a “possible parental child abduction” on their Facebook page over the weekend. The post identified Cantrell and displayed pictures of her and her three children. A description of her vehicle, a green Chevrolet Suburban with Virginia license plates, was also given in the post.

A State Police parkways dispatcher said the vehicle’s information was entered into the National Crime Information Center’s database. A license plate reader in a State Police cruiser picked up the SUV’s tags as it passed at about 10 p.m. Saturday on Interstate 77-64 and the trooper pulled the vehicle over, the dispatcher said.

Virginia deputies posted on Facebook Sunday that the three children were “safe” and that family members were en route to West Virginia to pick them up. Wise deputies were not available for comment Sunday.

Cantrell is being held without bond at South Central Regional Jail and is awaiting extradition to Virginia where she will face kidnapping charges.

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Parental Abduction – Changes to Travel Rules for Families Visiting South Africa

September 21 , 2014

Source: expatriatehealthcare.com

South Africa has long been a popular destination for Brits seeking winter sunshine. Each year over 300,000 of us fly out to the Cape in search of better weather, sandy beaches and breath-taking scenery. Unfortunately though, British expats and holiday makers visiting South Africa from October 1st onwards could be in for a nasty surprise.

In an attempt to tackle problems of child abduction and trafficking, new rules are to be introduced for minors entering the country. Anyone entering the country with children will be required to produce a full birth certificate for each child as evidence of legal parentage.

This is likely to put additional strain on governments around the world to issue – or reissue – birth certificates and thus enable travel. In the UK alone it can take several weeks to receive a birth certificate and this lead time is likely to worsen as demand rises later in the year.

For children who are accompanied by just one parent the rules will be even more draconian. The sole parent will not only require a birth certificate for each child under their supervision but also an affidavit. This must be signed by the other parent authorizing international travel and entry specifically into South Africa.

In cases where neither parent is present – such as school trips – further paperwork will be required. Once again, guardians will need to produce birth certificates and affidavits from the parents of all children. However in addition the guardian must present passports from both parents.

While the new rules have been put in place with the best of intentions by the South African government they are being called a “tourism, PR, economic and political disaster”. The additional paperwork required to visit South Africa in the future will not only frustrate potential visitors but also add to the costs of travel.

In addition the increased demand for such paperwork may cause delays and even holiday cancellations as most airlines are unlikely to allow travel to South Africa before production of the required documentation.

Families considering a future visit to South Africa are strongly encouraged to check the latest travel requirements with their airline in case of changes.

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Parental Abduction – Child Abductor Sentenced To 4 Years

September 21 , 2014

Source: cJob.com

Kevin Maryk has been sentenced to four years in prison for abducting his two young children from Winnipeg and holding them in Mexico for four years.

Maryk has been in prison since May, 2012 when authorities, acting on a tip, found him and the children in Guadalajara. He had been on the run since Aug., 2008 when he disappeared with the kids, then 5 and 7-years-old, following a court-approved visit.

While handing down his decision in a Winnipeg courtroom today, Judge Ted Lismer said Maryk’s callous disregard for the harm he caused his children was a key factor in the sentence.

Thursday’s ruling means Maryk will spend just over another year in custody having already spent five months imprisoned in Mexico and 20 months in Canada. Lisner gave him credit for 60 of those days served in Mexico and 1.5 times the total time served in Canada.

If Maryk’s defense attorney Todd Bourcier had his way, his client would have been released following today’s hearing. He was asking for his immediate release based on how long he’d already been incarcerated. Crown attorney Debbie Bours was looking for a five year sentence.

During another hearing in July, the childrens’ mother Emily Cablek described how they still suffer from emotional trauma incurred during the time they spent with their father. The court also heard the residence they were found in was surrounded by a concrete wall topped with a barbed wire fence and that the children didn’t go to school and may have witnessed drug use and acts of prostitution.

After Thursday’s ruling, Cablek said she thinks he should have been given a harsher sentence, “In a nice world it would have been ten years, for me, but four years that’s on par with how many years the children were taken from me and that’s not fair. I didn’t get a choice in the matter, he chose to do something illegal … it’s pretty much a joke to him, he pretty much got away with it.”

Detective Sergeant Shauna Neufeld was part of the team that found Maryk and his two kids in Mexico. She agrees four years isn’t long enough.

“Would I have liked to see more than four years – for sure. I’d have liked to see ten. I think with parental abductions there’s often the misconception that people aren’t being hurt. Two kids lives here were affected for years to come and the mother was deprived of access to her children for so long,” she said.

Maryk led authorities on a four-year manhunt after he left Canada with the children. He narrowly avoided capture on one occasion in Peurto Vallarta before police finally closed in and made the arrest in 2012. He had help eluding police. Earlier this year Robert Groen, an accomplice of Maryk’s, was sentenced to one year in prison for his role in the abduction. Another alleged accomplice, Cody McKay, remains at large. A Canada-wide warrant is out for his arrest.

The sentencing has been delayed several times throughout throughout the summer. It appeared judge Lismer was ready to make a ruling after a July sentencing hearing but the crown was given permission to present more evidence. That took place at the end of August after a series of procedural hearings throughout the summer.

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Mother’s arrest at D/FW Airport shows difficulties of international custody disputes

19 September , 2014

Source: DallasNews 

Like many divorces, Padmashini and Dean Drees’ breakup in 2004 was bitter.

There were mutual allegations of abuse, suspicions of infidelity and a nasty fight over custody of the couple’s toddler son, Drew.

But when Padmashini Drees traveled with Drew to India seven years ago and didn’t return, the family’s problems reached the U.S. State Department and the FBI.

Though custody battles tend to be messy, international cases like the one involving the Dreeses can drag on for years. The U.S. Supreme Court has wrestled with at least two disputes since 2012. Clashing legal systems become hurdles for the parents.

The parent left behind has little recourse if a U.S. court order is not recognized in another country. The parent who takes the child abroad in violation of a custody order could face criminal prosecution should he or she ever return to U.S. soil.

The North Texas case appeared to have a movie-script ending July 9, when Dean Drees reunited with Drew, who is now 10. A McKinney police photo showed a smiling father embracing his son.

Officers arrested Padmashini Drees when her flight landed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. They accused her of abducting her son and put her in jail.

The case is not settled.

Padmashini Drees was released from the Collin County Jail on Sept. 2. Her felony charge of interference with child custody is pending. If convicted, she faces up to two years in state jail.

“Today, Padma has the option of making a comfortable life anywhere in the world,” said her attorney, Scott Mackenzie, in a written statement. “She has chosen to stay in the United States to fight for her son and get the justice that she truly deserves.”

Neither Padmashini Drees nor Dean Drees would speak with a reporter except through their lawyers.

The mother

Padmashini Drees’ life in the U.S. began in the early 2000s as her first marriage, an arranged union, crumbled, her attorney said.

Trained as an architect, she enrolled in a computer-aided design class where she met Dean Drees. The couple married in August 2003 and started a family in a middle-class neighborhood in McKinney.

Dean Drees filed for divorce in October 2004, nine months after Drew’s birth.

In 2006, a court in Collin County granted Padmashini and Dean Drees joint custody of Drew. It also set the boy’s primary residence with his father and ordered his mother to pay child support.

Mackenzie said Padmashini Drees, a green-card holder, lived under her husband’s constant threats of deportation.

“In light of that, I can understand why she felt the need to run,” Mackenzie said.

Dean Drees’ attorney, Tiffany Haertling, denied the allegations. She lamented that Padmashini Drees “would choose to continue to inflict hurt and grief on an already unfortunate situation.”

Drew was about 3 years old when his mother took him overseas. They lived in India and also traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand, according to a court document.

The father

Dean Drees told a Collin County court that he made “continuous efforts” to get his son back for the seven years he was away. He hired private investigator Danny Russell to track down Drew. Russell worked with federal agencies and others to locate the boy.

Dean Drees missed Drew “immensely” and was desperate to find him, Russell said.

“He was a very polite father who was fearful of the worst because he didn’t know what had happened to his son,” Russell said. “He had no contact.”

India is a haven for parental child abductions, said Jeremy Morley, a New York attorney and former co-chairman of the International Family Law Committee of the American Bar Association.

The Asian nation hasn’t signed the Hague Abduction Convention, a treaty that encourages the safe return of children taken from their home countries.

“There is no consistency in the approaches of the Indian courts in these cases,” Morley said, “and the Indian legal system is extremely slow and can be corrupt.”

The U.S. State Department reported 702 parental child abductions from the U.S. to another country in 2013. India accounted for 28 cases, trailing only Mexico and Canada.

Coming home

In December, Padmashini Drees restored Drew’s contact with Dean Drees through video chats. Dean Drees asked his ex-wife to come back with Drew so they could both parent the boy, Mackenzie said.

“Despite the warnings given to her by Indian authorities and other people … she kind of hoped Dean would have mercy on her and try to work with her,” the attorney said.

On July 16, a Collin County court suspended Padmashini Drees’ access to her son as part of the civil custody case.

Her legal team wants to resolve the felony case before pursuing visitation with Drew, Mackenzie said. Padmashini Drees has no intention of taking her son back to India, the attorney said.

Parents should seek proper legal advice instead of trying to resolve custody issues themselves, said Morley, the New York attorney.

“She took the law into her own hands,” he said of Padmashini Drees. “Now she’s paying the price.”

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Parental Abduction – Boy Abducted in Seattle May Pass by SD in Boat: FBI

September 13 , 2014

Source: NBC News

FBI officials are asking San Diegans to be on the lookout for a missing Seattle boy and his father who may pass by the area on their way to Mexico.

They believe Billy Ginger Hanson, 9, has been abducted by his biological father, Jeffrey Ford Hanson, 46, who may have taken to the high seas with the boy.

Law enforcement is concerned for the child’s safety because they say Hanson is extremely volatile.

Billy was supposed to return to his mother in Pennsylvania on Sept. 4, but he never boarded the flight.

The FBI believes Jeffrey and Billy Hanson may be aboard a white 1976 Cooper sailboat like the one pictured here. King County Sheriff’s Dept.

The FBI says Hanson, a known drug abuser, may be illegally taking his son to Mexico, the San Juan Islands or Tahiti in a 1976 Cooper sailboat with a 6-inchy red stripe along the side. The vessel named “Draco” has a Washington license plate of WN6783NZ.

In case they pass by the California coast, the agency has raised alarms here.

Billy is described as a Caucasian boy with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing 90 pounds and standing 4-feet tall.

Hanson is a Caucasian man with blonde hair and blue eyes. He stands 5-foot-5 and weighs 160 pounds. The FBI has issued a warrant for his arrest, accusing him of violating the international parental kidnapping statute.

If you know anything about the Hansons’ whereabouts, call the San Diego FBI office at 858-320-1800, the Seattle FBI office at 206-622-0460 or 911.

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Flight from Dulles to Beijing forced to return due to attempted kidnapping

September 5 , 2014

Source: Myfox / ABC News

An international flight, an apparent kidnapping and an unknowing plane full of passengers made for a bizarre scenario Thursday that unfolded 35,000 feet above the ground.

It should have been a routine flight for 180 passengers bound for Beijing Thursday; little did they know they were in the middle of a custody dispute.

The United Airlines flight departed Virginia’s Dulles International Airport at 12:39 p.m. When it reached Canadian air space, the FBI ordered the Boeing 777 back to Virginia after learning a kidnapping suspect was on board.

Flight 897 landed back at Dulles five hours after its departure.

Video

Once at the gate, passenger Lane Bailey says the pilot made an announcement; the incident stemmed from a child custody investigation. According to law enforcement sources, a child was traveling with his mother.

The child’s father, an American citizen, alerted the FBI fearing the mother was taking the child to China with no plans of returning.

At the airport, the mother was taken into police custody on attempted kidnapping charges. The child was returned safely to his father.

The ordeal soon started to make sense to the passengers onboard.

“The pilot came on board and said we were experiencing mechanical problems,” Bailey said. “After they left, the pilot came back on and said that he deliberately mislead us, he thought that, in his judgment that it was the best thing to do, given the circumstances of potential abduction that that’s the reason we had diverted.”

The child’s mother, who was arrested on Thursday at Dulles, is expected in court later today.

Had the plane landed in Canada or China and had the FBI, not intervened, the incident may have turned into a protracted international custody battle.

In 2009, David Goldman’s case drew worldwide attention after his son Sean was taken by his then-wife to Brazil.

After a five year legal battle, Goldman gained custody of his then nine-year-old.

Updates from CNN:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had received an alert that a mother on that flight was allegedly taking her child out of the country illegally, an FBI spokesman told CNN.

Upon the flight’s return “the flight was met by law enforcement including FBI agents and three individuals were removed from the plane to include a grandmother, mother and child,” FBI spokesman Andrew Ames confirmed, via email.

“The mother was taken into custody on suspicion of committing an international parental kidnapping and the child was reunited with the father. The grandmother was not detained.”

The criminal complaint charges that Wenjing Liu, also known as Linda Liu, unlawfully attempted “to remove a child from the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights.”

After separating and starting divorce proceedings in 2013, Liu and William J. Ruifrok III were awarded joint custody of their 4-year-old son, who was born in China and is a dual U.S.-Chinese citizen, the complaint stated. The 2014 custody agreement doesn’t allow either party to travel outside of the United States without “express written and notarized consent of the other party, provided in advance of the trip,” according to the complaint.

In an interview with law enforcement after being removed from the flight, Liu admitted violating the custody order by removing her son from the United States without his father’s consent, according to the complaint.

She made her first appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday and has a bond hearing scheduled for Monday.

After the aircraft returned to Dulles, United assigned a new crew due to crew flight time limits, and the flight departed again for Beijing at 7:47 pm ET, the United spokesperson said.

CNN’s initial attempts to reach a representative for Liu were not successful.

It’s a federal crime in the United States for parents to take or attempt to take their children out of the United States or keep them out of the country to obstruct another parent’s custodial rights. But while federal authorities may prosecute one parent, they can’t necessarily return a child who is already outside the country to the other parent.

About one quarter of the 1,800 to 2,000 annual missing children reports received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are for international parental abductions, according to Maureen Heads, a supervisor in the center’s missing children division.

The U.S. Department of State tries to return kidnapped children through negotiation, sometimes made easier if the other country is also a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction. The United States and more than 70 other countries have signed the convention, but it only applies if both countries involved are signatories.

“That leaves many countries where there is no partner” for the United States to negotiate with, said Heads. “It can be a real challenge at times for parents.”

China is not a signatory to the convention, which Heads said could have made it harder for the father in the United Airlines case to get his child back.

 

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Queensland mother Dorothy Lee Barnett to be extradited to US for alleged child abduction

September 4 , 2014

Source: Brisbanetimes

A mother accused of abducting her infant daughter 20 years ago will be extradited to the United States.

The federal government has ordered Dorothy Lee Barnett, 53, be surrendered to US authorities to face international parental kidnapping charges, despite an appeal from her lawyers.

Ms Barnett was arrested on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast last year and charged with kidnapping her 10-month-old daughter, Savannah Todd, in 1994 and fleeing the US.

A digitally aged photo of Dorothy Lee Barnett released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children during the search for the alleged kidnapper. Photo: Supplied

In November 2013 Australian and US police found Ms Barnett and her daughter, who now goes by the name of ­Samantha Geldenhuys, living in the suburb of Mountain Creek, west of Mooloolaba.

When arrested, Ms Barnett consented to extradition but then reneged.

Her lawyers asked the federal government to prevent the extradition, but federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan ordered this week that Ms Barnett be surrendered.

Savannah Harris Todd was discovered at the age of 20 living in Australia

“The minister arrived at his determination following careful consideration of the provisions of Australia’s extradition law and taking into account representations made by, and on behalf of, Ms Barnett,” a government spokeswoman said in a statement to Fairfax Media.

According to US authorities, Samantha’s American father, millionaire stockbroker Benjamin Harris Todd III, had been granted sole custody of the then-10-month-old.

It is alleged Ms Barnett left for a birthday party with her infant daughter in South Carolina and never returned.

Mr Todd has spent the last two decades searching for his daughter, making public appeals for information on her whereabouts and circulating age-progressed photos of Samantha and her mother on international missing persons websites.

Ms Barnett is alleged to have fled to Europe on a false passport, changing her name to Alexandra Canton.

In 1995, she married a man named Juan Geldenhuys in South Africa with whom she had a son.

The family moved to New Zealand, before settling in Australia in 2007.

Mr Geldenhuys returned to South Africa about five years ago and is believed to have died from bone cancer in October, just weeks before his former wife’s arrest.

Samantha attended the local high school on the Sunshine Coast and, after graduating, moved to Townsville to study nursing at James Cook University, where she found a boyfriend in an engineering student.

Ms Barnett faces more than a decade in a US prison if convicted of international parental kidnapping and passport-related offences.

She has remained in custody since her arrest last year, but has regular visits from her daughter and son.

US authorities have two months in which to escort Ms Barnett to the US, subject to any application for a review of Mr Keenan’s order.

 

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US Congress acts to prevent international child abductions

29 August , 2014

Source: nation.com 

WASHINGTON : Congress gave its final approval Friday to legislation that compels US authorities to assist American mothers and fathers whose children are victims of international parental abductions.

More than 1,000 international child abductions each year are reported to the State Department, with children often taken illegally from the United States by a foreign parent to countries like Brazil, England, India, Japan and Russia. Most of them are not returned.
By simple voice vote, the House of Representatives approved the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act, named after son Sean who, through an intense US diplomatic intervention, was returned to his New Jersey home years after being taken to Brazil by his mother.
The bill passed the House last December, but the Senate tweaked it and approved its version last week. The House on Friday passed the final legislation and it now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The international Hague Convention on child abductions provides a civil framework for speeding the return of children, but the rules are not consistently enforced.
The Goldman act, first drafted in 2009, “ensures that (American parents) will now receive significant help from the US government in their fights to recover their children,” said House Republican Chris Smith, who wrote the original legislation.
“With this bill, for the first time ever, parents with children held in non-Hague countries can work with the State Department. They won’t be on their own, far from the United States, desperately trying to get their children back.”
The law, once signed, would call for increasingly severe steps taken by US authorities if a foreign government does not cooperate in helping resolve abduction cases, beginning with diplomatic demarches and escalating to cancellations of official visits, suspension of economic aid, and formal requests for extradition of individuals engaged in abductions.
It would also urge the administration to forge bilateral agreements with Hague Convention and non-Hague Convention countries to help locate and return abducted children and protect access rights for the “left-behind” parent. “These abductions are a form of child abuse and a human rights violation,” Smith said.

 

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Girl in overseas parental tug-of-war ordered to stay in Bay Area

August 29, 2014

Source: sfgate.com 

A 9-year-old girl who has been the subject of an overseas parental tug-of-war should stay with her father in Mill Valley, where she was born, rather than in Ireland, where her mother sent her to school after the marriage broke up, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

Under an international treaty designed to prevent kidnappings of children by their estranged parents, children should remain in their nation of “habitual residence,” said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

While that can be difficult to determine, the court said, the key question is in which country both parents intended their child to live, the last time they agreed on the subject. That should be overruled only when the child has become so attached to living elsewhere that relocation would clearly be harmful, the court said.

The child’s parents split up in 2009. The next spring her mother, Elaine Murphy, proposed moving back to her native Ireland to attend graduate school and take her daughter along.

Both parents described the move as a “trial period,” the court said, but it continued for three years. The girl went to kindergarten and first and second grades in Ireland but returned to California five times a year, including all summer, to visit her father, David Sloan, who visited her and her mother in Ireland each Christmas.

The arrangement broke down after Murphy took her daughter out of school for several weeks in spring 2013 while visiting Murphy’s boyfriend.

Sloan went to Ireland and brought the girl back to Mill Valley to live permanently. Murphy did not object at first, and discussed moving back to California to be near her daughter, but filed suit in September 2013 to return the girl to Ireland. The couple’s divorce became final a month later.

Upholding a ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in the father’s favor, the appeals court said the parents had evidently agreed in 2010 that their daughter’s “habitual residence” was the United States, after a temporary “trial period” in Ireland. They never reached a contrary agreement after that, the court said.

Although the girl “developed strong ties to Ireland” during her first three years of school, she also maintained family and cultural connections to the U.S. during visits with her father and while in Ireland, Judge Margaret McKeown said in the 3-0 ruling.

Children often adjust to new surroundings, McKeown said, and courts should look for strong evidence of an emotional attachment before overriding the parents’ last mutual agreement on where their child should live.

Thomas Wolfrum, the mother’s lawyer, said she would appeal the ruling. He said most nations that have signed the treaty against parental kidnapping, and at least one other federal court, have given greater weight to the child’s conception of her homeland than to the parents’ onetime agreement.

After the girl attended her first three years of school, made friends, and took lessons in Irish dancing and Gaelic, Wolfrum said, “the place she called home was Ireland.”

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When Your Ex Emigrates With Your Children

August 4 , 2014

Source: separated dads

The modern world is getting smaller, with more and more people living and working abroad.

It’s no surprise that the number of international families is on the increase but what happens to the kids when these relationships break down and the mother wishes to return to their home country with the child? What rights does the father have?

Your Rights

If both parents have parental responsibility for a child it is a criminal offence in the UK to emigrate with a child without the permission of the other parent or without an order of the Court. Parents have Parental Responsibility for children in the following circumstances:

1. The Mother – always has PR
2. The Father – if he was married to the Mother, or if he was named on the birth certificate and the child was born after 1st December 2003 or if there is a PR agreement stamped by the Court

Outcomes

There are 4 outcomes if one parent wants to take the child abroad to live permanently:-

1. Permission refused by the Court and the Mother abandons her plans or the child moves to live with the Father
2. The Mother and child emigrate with the Father’sagreement
3. Lawful removal of the child by the Mother
4. Unlawful removal of the child by the Mother

Outcome 1 is self-explanatory but let’s looks at the other 3 outcomes in more detail:

Outcome 2 – Emigrate with Father’s Agreement

Where the parents reach an agreement which permits one parent to move abroad with the child whist ensuring that they maintain a good relationship with the other parent. International travel is much cheaper and often parents agree a schedule of annual contact involving return trips to the UK in the school holidays and weekends and visits by the non-resident parent to the child’s new home. Other forms of contact can be agreed upon such as Skype, telephone, email and Face time.

 

In these circumstances it is always wise to apply to the Court to request an order in the agreed terms to prevent any problems further down the line. A court order may also be required by the immigration authorities if the proposed move is by a non-national who requires a Visa. Depending upon the Country where the child is going to be residing, it may be necessary to obtain a mirror order in the new state reflecting the terms of the English Court order. You cannot assume that Court Orders made here are enforceable abroad. If the move is to an EU country the order would be directly enforceable but unless the English court order expressly retains jurisdiction, it will pass to the new state after 3 months and in theory an application could be made in the new state to vary the agreed terms. If the new home is a signatory to the Hague Convention, the Central Authority in London can assist in enforcing a contact order abroad. If the new home is outside the EU and is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, for example Arab States and the Far East, retaining jurisdiction here or obtaining a mirror order is the best form of protection.

Outcome 3 – Lawful Removal of Child

Where parents cannot agree it is necessary for the parent wishing to remove the child to apply to the Court for permission to do so. If permission is granted, contact will also be ordered. This will then result in the lawful removal of the child. Depending on the child’s destination and whether that country would enforce the English Court order (as in EU Countries) it may be necessary to obtain a mirror order in the new home country to ensure contact is maintained. See above ” 2 .Agreement”

Outcome 4 – Unlawful Removal of Child

Where parents cannot agree and the parent wishing to leave simply takes the child without permission, this is parental child abduction. It is a criminal offence to remove a child from the UK without the permission of the other parent or order of the court (save for where the parent has a residence order and removal is for less than 28 days). If you suspect that your child has been taken abroad you will need to access specialist legal advice immediately. In some cases it is possible to stop a child leaving the country by notifying the ports and airports who will place the child’s details on a watch list. If the child has already left the UK, a lot will depend upon where they have gone and whether that country has an agreement with the UK to return wrongfully removed children. There are unfortunately circumstances where children are not returned which could result in the child losing its relationship with the other parent.

If you are separated from your child’s mother and these issues arise for you it is important that you obtain specialist advice from a family lawyer with an international background which will enable you to consider the best way forward for you and for your child to ensure your relationship is maintained.

About the Author

This was a guest post written by Louise Halford, a family law Partner at Pannone LLP who specialises in child abduction.

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