Court awards English mother custody of abducted child

An English woman today won custody of her seven-year-old daughter after she was abducted by her father and brought to Malta.

The Family Court heard that the parents, both UK nationals, had married in the UK in 2001. They separated in May 2009 and were divorced in the following year.  No provision was made for the care and custody of the child in the divorce decree.  Following the divorce the father came to live in Malta with his girlfriend and with his daughter.

The mother started proceedings for the return of the child to the UK and on October 15, 2010 and the UK courts  issued a declaration of wrongful removal of the daughter from the country.

The father claimed that the mother did not exercise her custody rights on a regular basis and added that should the child be ordered to return to the UK to live with her mother she would suffer psychological harm.

Mr Justice Cuschieri in today's judgement said that international law provided that the removal or retention of a child was wrongful if it was in breach of rights of custody.  The law of the state of the child’s habitual resident was to apply in order to determine whether parents had rights of custody.

In this case the child was born when her parents were still married.  Under English law, both parents had joint parental responsibility over the child.  No evidence had been brought by the father to show that the mother had abandoned her rights of custody.

No evidence had been produced to show that the child was likely to suffer any harm if she was returned to the mother in the UK  and an English social worker had concluded that the mother was able to meet the child’s needs.

The court therefore found that the child had been wrongfully abducted and ordered her return to the UK.