MUM’S BATTLE AFTER FLEEING U.S. WITH SON
500 cases each year in Britain ‘Abused’ Brit told to take lad back
THE case of the young British mum focuses on Hague Convention rules which say any parent accused of abducting a child must return them to their country of “habitual residence”.
The accord aims to secure the return of children so that local courts can decide on custody and
access. Countries can issue international arrest warrants or launch extradition proceedings.
But the system has been accused of “victim-blaming”, with mums fleeing abuse told to hand over their child or face prison.
UK charity Reunite, which helps parents whose children
have been taken, sees 500-600 abduction cases every year.
Spokesperson Vicky Mayes said: “Cases of child abduction have a devastating impact. The High Court can stipulate certain undertakings to ensure the child and parent are not subjected to additional stress on their return.”
A YOUNG mum who fled her ex for a new life in Britain faces losing her son under anti-kidnap legislation.
UK-born Bronte Pickthall, 21, and her son flew from America after her relationship with the boy’s father turned “toxic”.
The dad was granted custody by a US court and an arrest warrant for Bronte was issued.
Now a High Court judge has ordered she should return with the five-year-old – but demanded the arrest warrant is dropped.
Bronte, now living in Portsmouth with her mum Wendy, last night begged not to be kicked out of the UK. She told the Sunday Mirror: “If there’s any risk that I lose my son, I’m not getting on the plane. They’d have to drag me on to it.
“I’m stepping on eggshells. At any moment I could get a phone call that flips everything around.
“My son is flourishing in England, it would be horrendous on him to go back.”
Lawyers for Bronte’s ex, Grant Bode, applied for a hearing under the Hague Convention in London.
RISK
The 1980 agreement aims to protect children from kidnap.
Bronte told the court she feared her child was at grave risk of harm in America.
She alleges Bode, 22, was violent when she lived in New Jersey – choking her and hitting her in the face with a bucket.
Bode told the court he had “never been violent” to Bronte.
He later told the Mirror: “I have never put my hands on her.”
Mr Justice Holman ordered Bronte to return – provided the US rescinds the arrest warrant. He ruled there must be “no possibility the mother can be arrested or the child removed from her”.
He said: “This child, who is American, must be returned.
“I appreciate an enforced return must seem like a brick wall to this mother, and I have much sympathy for her, but she wrongly took the law into her own hands.”
Bronte said she would accept shared custody if she and her son stay in the UK most of the year.