A court turned down the request made by the Department of Social Welfare Standards to return two children to their father in Belgium after the mother brought them to Malta last year.
Mr Justice Robert Mangion, in the Family Court, ruled that the father was aware that the mother was bringing the children to Malta and that she intended to stay. This was evident since he was looking for a job in Malta and had put their matrimonial home in Brussels on the market.
The case has been opened by the Department in March this year after the father went to the Belgian Central Authority and filed a claim - under that Hague Convention - for his children to be returned to Belgium.
The court heard how the mother and father agreed with the facts leading to the mother coming to Malta - that the couple were going through marital problems brought about by the father's sexual promiscuity. None of them contested that Belgium was the children's habitual place of residence and that both parents had custody.
In May 2014, the mother came to Malta with the two children. She came with the consent of her husband.
The father, however, said that he expected her to return after a week or so but she did not. The mother said that the father was well aware that they had not decided on a return date and that she had come to Malta, to stay with her parents, to clear her mind over what was going on in the marriage.
The woman said that she had asked the father to come to Malta as that would cut him off from the circle of promiscuity he was involved in and perhaps save their marriage. Meanwhile, while she was in Malta, he was applying for jobs in Malta, Belgium and Sweden.
But when he visited Malta in December, the mother said, she found photos on his Facebook page what made her realise he had not changed and, soon after, she filed for separation.
The judged noted that when the mother came to Malta the father expected her to return at some point. When she decided not to she had committed "unlawful retention" of the children.
However, after that the father was in touch with the mother and, as the issues unfolded and she filed for separation, he upped his search for a job in Malta and even put their Belgian home on the market. This showed that he was "acquiescing to the retention" of the children.
"It is... established jurisprudence that, once a parent acquiesces to a retention, he or she may not withdraw that acquiescence," the judge ruled as it turned down the department's request to order the children's return.