Mum who f led US 16 years ago is sent back for ‘kidnap of her own children’
A MOTHER who has lived openly in Britain for 16 years after fleeing her allegedly abusive husband has been extradited to the US on charges of kidnapping their three children.
Eileen Clark, 57, was handed over to US marshals at Heathrow Airport on Thursday.
The American citizen, who lives near Oxford, has been charged with international parental kidnapping even though her three children, now adults, support her.
She will face a courtroom confrontation with the man she says subjected her to almost a decade of violence, threats and sexual and psychological abuse.
Her supporters believe it is yet another example of how Britain’s Extradition Act is unfair and is being misused.
Liberty, which represents Mrs Clark, said an emergency injunction to halt her removal was refused hours before she was flown to the US. Two medical reports found she was unfit to fly, the charity’s legal officer Emma Norton said, adding: ‘Disgracefully, even that evidence wasn’t enough to stop the Home Office from handing her over.’
Liberty said extraditing the ‘vulnerable’ and ‘terrified’ Mrs Clark was a ‘perfect example of how inhuman, unbalanced and unjust our extradition system has become’.
Witnesses said she was so distressed she was taken on to the plane in a wheelchair, and the US marshals even attempted to restrain her for the flight until a Metropolitan Police officer intervened, informing them that Home Secretary Theresa May had advised against it.
Mrs Clark, a former model,
‘Vulnerable and terrified’
left her unhappy marriage in 1995. She claims she fled the New Mexico home she shared with her ex-husband, taking their children, a day after he said he wanted to separate due to ‘marital discord’.
The marriage was dissolved in 1997, with both parents retaining legal custody of the children. She l i ved with friends before bringing her children to Britain in 1998.
Her ex-husband, John Clark, pursued her in the US courts even though their children Chandler, 26, Hayden, 24 and 21-year-old Rebekah bitterly oppose her extradition.
She was first charged with ‘custodial interference’ – not a criminal offence in Britain – in 1995. Mrs Clark claims that, after instructing a US lawyer, she was assured the charge had been dismissed.
However, in 2010, she was told she faced extradition for the far more serious offence of i nternational parental kidnapping. She could face up to three years in prison.
All three children have been labelled ‘endangered adults’ by US authorities, who insist they only discovered she was living in Britain in 2008.
Last August, the Home Secretary upheld the extradition order, but the case returned to court after new evidence that Mrs Clark had post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her marriage.
Last month, two High Court judges rejected the challenge, saying the claim was dubious. Lord Justice Treacy said there was a ‘strong public i nterest in e xt r a di t i on between friendly nations’.
A Liberty spokesman said Mrs Clark will be in custody in the US until she can get bail, but this will be difficult as she has no permanent American address.
Mrs Clark claims the move is part of her ex-husband’s abuse, describing it as ‘ his final bid for power and control over me’. Their daughter, Rebekah, said in May: ‘I don’t mean to sound melodramatic but I just think it would be the end of her.’
Mrs Clark claims her exhusband used to hit her, once threatening to push her down a flight of stairs when she was pregnant. The decision to extradite her was condemned by domestic violence charity Refuge. Sandra Horley, its chief executive, said her forced return was a ‘ bleak day’ and set ‘an incredibly dangerous precedent’.
She said: ‘Eileen alleges that she experienced years of domestic abuse at his hands.
‘It is highly disturbing that her claims have not been properly examined in a court of law in this country. Instead, this terrified woman is being handed back to the States to face criminal charges.’