Mom under fire over daughter’s extradition

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Published May 30, 2016

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Durban - A Durban mother who fought an extended court battle to stop her young daughter from being forced to return to her father in Northern Ireland has come under fire from three appeal judges for adopting “delaying tactics” and “holding the court to ransom”, with the result that they had little option but to allow the child to remain here.

But to show their displeasure, they ordered that the mother - although ultimately a victor in the court battle - pay the legal costs of the respondent, the Family Advocates office, which acts as the designated “central authority” in child abduction matters under the Hague Convention.

“Her conduct disinclines me from being sympathetic towards her on the costs issue,” Judge Graham Lopes said, with Judge Piet Bezuidenhout and Judge Shyam Gyanda concurring.

He said while the mother was not financially well off, she had displayed a contemptuous attitude to previous court rulings in both countries.

“That her daughter is not to be returned to Northern Ireland is in no part due to any action of hers, other than her unconscionable behaviour in failing to take into account the best interests of her child and pursuing instead her own selfish and misguided beliefs,” Judge Lopes said in the recent judgment.

The matter before the judges was an appeal by the mother against a ruling by Judge Yvonne Mbatha in 2014 providing for the return of the child to Ireland.

Evidence was that the mother and father had married in 1997, had three children, and got divorced in 2008. The elder children were living with their father who in 2012 secured an order in the Irish court that the youngest daughter should also come to live with him.

The mother appealed against this and then the following month fled the country, taking the child to South Africa in breach of the order.

In January 2013 the father lodged an application with the central authority of Ireland which located the child here and legal proceedings commenced for her return, culminating in the judgment of Judge Mbatha and, after an application to the Supreme Court of Appeal, the recent appeal before the three KwaZulu-Natal judges.

While the judges noted that the delays in the matter were in part because of tardiness by the Central Authority in South Africa, it was clear the mother would do everything in her power to prevent the child from having any contact with her siblings and father, whom she accuses of being religiously “fanatical”, having indoctrinated the other children.

“This matter is a prime example of the court being held to ransom by delaying tactics and incompetence. We are now faced with a situation where (the child) has resided here for more than three years. She had adapted well and seems, on the face of it, to be happy.

“Returning to Northern Ireland will no doubt be an enormous shock to her system. She will have to leave behind her life and friends, adopt to a new (step) mother, a new language, a new religion and a new way of living.

“What makes this decision so much more difficult is she is now 9; These years are part of critical development.”

They ruled that while the child could remain, the office of the Family Advocate must conduct an inquiry into the most appropriate methods of ensuring that she had contact with her family overseas.

The Mercury

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