Mom who abducted son, fled to the U.S. gets seven months
Court hears she took boy to the U.S. after bitter custody battle with his father
A Vancouver mother who abducted her young son and took him to the U.S. in violation of a court order has been sentenced to seven months in jail.
In imposing sentence on the woman, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, Vancouver provincial court Judge Laura Bakan accepted a joint submission from Crown counsel Isobel Keeley and the mom’s lawyer.
The jail sentence, which will see the 33-year-old mom being released in about a month after receiving credit for pre-sentence custody, is the latest development in a protracted and bitter dispute between the parents of the 10-year-old boy.
Before the abduction, the dispute saw the mom fabricating emails from police officers and fabricating emails from the dad in which he threatens to kill her — all in a bid to deny the dad access to the boy of whom they shared custody.
“My son hates me now and it’s your fault, it always is!” the mom said in one of the fake emails she wrote and claimed was from her former partner. “I’m going to slit your throat when you least expect it and there’s nothing you or anyone can do to stop me!!! You have messed with my life one too many times, and I’ll end your life with a big grin on my face.”
The fake email was composed by the mom in September of last year and reported by her to the Vancouver police. Officers attended her residence and obtained a copy of the email.
The mom, who had pleaded guilty to abduction in contravention of a court order and fabricating emails, then presented the email in court in a bid to get a protection order against the dad.
A protection order was granted and the dad, who met the mom in 2007 and lived with her briefly before separating after the boy was born, was prohibited access to his son and to his former partner.
Several weeks later the dad contacted Vancouver police to advise them that the mom had presented a number of documents to his lawyer in family court that he believed were fabricated.
One of the fabricated emails was from a police officer to the mom in which the officer advises her to ask a judge to put an order in place to protect her from further threats and violence from the dad.
Court heard that the mom also made false allegations that the dad had sexually abused his son.
In December, when the mom failed to show for a family court hearing, the dad was awarded unsupervised access to the boy. The order prohibited either party from removing the child from B.C.
The dad says that for several months before the abduction in March, he was aware that the mom was planning to take their son away.
He says he contacted police, spoke to the child-protection officials and even went to court to try to stop it from happening.
On March 9, when he went to the boy’s elementary school to pick him up, he was not able to find his son and reported the matter to police, who launched a massive investigation. The mom had taken the boy and a daughter from another relationship with her to the U.S.
She caught a cab to Tsaw- wassen and then crossed the border to Point Roberts, Wash., where she caught a charter plane to Bellingham, Wash.
Then she made her way to Phoenix. Police eventually got a tip as to her whereabouts and arrested her at an apartment complex.
The two children were alone in the apartment at the time of the arrest, although the mom now says she had just taken the dog out.
The mom had used a fake name to rent the apartment and had fake identification, including a phoney Florida driver’s licence.
In the months leading up to the abduction, she’d sent emails to the “Dark Web,” inquiring about services to hack someone’s Hotmail account and to send disturbing emails from their account that would incriminate them.
She also did Google searches for such things as “how to abduct a child successfully” and “ex murdered by hitman.”
In addition to the jail term, the mom will be on three years’ probation with strict conditions.
Outside court, the dad said he would remain indebted to the police “forever” for finding his son.
“It’s amazing. He could have been gone still. We could never have seen him again.”
The dad said he remains fearful that his former partner, who he expects is going to seek joint custody at a family court hearing in September, will abduct his son again.
“And then we’re starting all over again and God knows how much smarter she’s gotten since the first time she tried this.”