Rewarding kidnapping

The Herald reports:

The behaviour of a mother who secretly brought her daughter to New Zealand without the father’s knowledge was “reprehensible” and an “egregious” breach of their custody battle, according to a High Court judge.

But in the best interests and welfare of the child, Justice Paul Davison ruled the daughter – who now considers herself a Kiwi – will not be sent back to live with her father in their homeland.

So the mother kidnaps the daughter away from her father (who has sole custody) and gets away with it. This just incentivises others to do the same.

The father told the Herald on Sunday he will move to New Zealand next year.

“All I want is to be part of my daughter’s life. A child needs both parents.”

The father is at a loss to explain why his former partner went to great lengths to cut him out of his daughter’s life.

The courts in their home country awarded sole custody to him after the mother repeatedly refused to let him see their daughter.

“The ingrained resentment the mother holds against the father, now significantly impairs the mother’s ability to raise her daughter … with her actions, the mother wilfully and significantly disregards the interests of her daughter,” the European court judgment said.

So why not grant custody to the father, so long as he moves to NZ?

Rewarding parents for kidnapping a child and poisoning them against the other parent is a bad idea.