THE father of a three-year-old boy who was taken on the run by his mother during a bitter custody battle is to decide whether to pursue a jail sentence for his former partner.
Roger Williams, 39, described the 17 days when his son was missing with Rebecca Minnock, his mother, as a “time of immense anxiety and distress”. Miss Minnock, from Highbridge, Somerset, handed herself in to police in Oxford on Friday after a nationwide hunt for the pair which lasted more than two weeks.
“I am hugely relieved and grateful that Ethan has been returned safely and is now able to resume a calm, normal daily routine,” Mr Williams said. “The last few weeks and months have been a time of immense anxiety and distress for Ethan and for me and my family.
“My primary focus is on Ethan and his well-being and I would ask that the matters that remain to be addressed are considered in a calmer atmosphere and without the glare of the media.”
A judge branded the mother-of-one “utterly irresponsible” as he laid out the process by which the boy’s father can pursue charges against her.
Judge Stephen Wildblood QC said that if everyone behaved like Rebecca Minnock there would be “anarchy” as he criticised the 35-year-old and her family for trying to “manipulate the press” – insisting it was “her choice” to go on the run.
Last week the judge jailed Miss Minnock’s mother, Louise, 52, and her partner, Andrew Butt, 56, after finding them in contempt of court for withholding information about Ethan’s disappear- ance. He said: “A singularly unattractive feature of this case that was revealed last week by Mr Butt was that he, and according to him other members of the mother’s family, sought to manipulate the press to their advantage. Mr Butt said in evidence that, when Rebecca Minnock did not achieve what she wanted to achieve in the family litigation, he and others took the view that Rebecca should go into hiding with Ethan to attract the attention of the press. As Mr Butt himself said, if everyone who is dissatisfied with the outcome of a case behaved in that way it would lead to anarchy.”
The judge said that Mr Williams and the court-appointed guardian for Ethan had until tomorrow afternoon to decide whether to bring contempt of court proceedings against Miss Minnock for breaches of previous legal orders. She could be jailed, if found guilty.
“I think that the father, in particular, has a right to reflect on this,” the judge said. “It is not an issue that has simply gone away and there needs to be a very clear message that parties cannot behave in the way that this mother has behaved.”
He went on: “The litigation in which the father first engaged two years ago has taken place because it was necessary for him to assert his right to a relationship with his child, Ethan.
“There have been three court hearings in which serious allegations made by the mother against the father have been rejected and, following a very high level of inquiry, it has been found that the mother positively invented allegations against the father on two occasions in an attempt to stop him having any contact or relationship with the child. The father has not at any time embarked on anything like the publicity stunt in which the mother’s family has engaged.”
Ethan has lived with Miss Minnock since his parents separated in February 2013. A custody battle began the following month. It was found Miss Minnock exposed Ethan to emotional harm and should only have supervised contact with him and it was ordered that the boy should live with Mr Williams full-time.