A five-year-old boy who had been kept in Malta unlawfully by his father will be returning to his mother in Poland.

A Court of Appeal decided it was in the boy's interest to return to Poland, where he was registered and went to school.

It reached its decision after hearing that Michael Caruana, a Maltese national, had a relationship with Polish national Katarzyna Morkis with whom he had a child.

The couple never married and after their child was born in Malta they entered into a contract, approved by the Maltese court, in terms of which the care and custody of the child would vest in the mother while the father would have access to the child.

The mother eventually returned to Poland with the child and took up residence there. 

Last September, the parents entered into another agreement whereby the child would visit Malta to spend time with his father and his father's family. However, Mr Caruana kept the boy in Malta and refused to return him to Poland last January.

A court of appeal today decided this was a clear case of wrongful retention.  Although Mr Caruana was trying to build a new family for his son in Malta, he could not do so by keeping the child away from his mother in Poland.