Two siblings, aged four and six, will be returned to Australia after a judge found they were abducted by their mother who brought them to Malta without the father’s consent.

The father, who has dual Australian-Maltese citizenship, filed a court application in Malta after he was informed by his Maltese wife that she had travelled to Malta with the children and had no intention of returning. It emerged that the mother took the children, a boy and a girl, and started her voyage to Malta while her husband was at work in December 2016.

He told the court he returned home only to find his family was gone. He checked his Facebook account and found a message from his wife saying that by the time he read the message, the three of them would have already left Australia with no intention of ever returning.

He called in the police who confirmed that the mother and her two children had indeed travelled to Malta. The relevant Australian authorities then commenced proceedings to get the children back once they had been taken without his consent and also on grounds that Australia was their habitual place of residence.

The father recounted in court he had relocated his family to Australia in 2015 and tied the knot with his partner three months later. He said he enjoyed joint custody of his children with his wife and also had the right to be part of important decisions in their life.

The authorities in both countries were in contact with a view of returning the children to Australia voluntarily but the mother refused to comply. She argued they had not relocated to Australia permanently as the move had always been planned to be a temporary measure.

Accuses her husband of selling narcotics

The woman said the court had not been informed about the violence and abuse she and her children had been subjected to while in Australia and neither that she had initiated separation proceedings from her husband.

She accused her husband of selling narcotics, cultivating cannabis and spiking her drinks with drugs, visiting strip clubs and even having regular sexual relations with other women, even passing on a sexually-transmitted disease while she was pregnant.

She told the court she had sought help in Australia but was informed to seek assistance from outside the country. This was why she had decided to pack and leave with the children.

The children called their father via Skype twice a week, the court also heard.

Madame Justice Abigail Lofaro said that although the couple’s plan was not to relocate in Australia for good, the mother’s decision to come to Malta without the father’s consent was tantamount to an abduction. According to case law, the children had to be returned to their habitual place of residence, that is, Australia.

Referring to the mother’s claims of violence and abuse on the children, the court noted there had been just a couple of incidents and the mother never took the matter further. The other claims regarding strip clubs and frequenting other women were extraneous to the abduction proceedings, the judge remarked.

In the circumstances, Madame Justice Lofaro ordered that the children were to return to Australia with the assistance of the police and court bailiffs.