Judge rules child must return to Sweden

A JUDGE has ordered the return of an eight-year-old girl to Sweden from Scotland, despite her saying it would make her “sadder than sad”.

Her mother, who brought her to live in Scotland last year after she separated from her father, will be detained if she goes back to Sweden and faces up to four years’ imprisonment, a court heard.

A bid by Swedish authorities to have the mother extradited to the Scandinavian nation was rejected earlier this year by a sheriff in Edinburgh as the offence set out in a European Arrest Warrant was not one in Scots Law.

Maternal relatives of the girl expressed concerns that the father, who has sought his daughter’s return to Sweden, could later take her to Turkey and that she was at risk of an arranged marriage.

A psychologist who saw the girl reported that she was of the view that going back to Sweden “will deeply distress her”.

But a judge ruled that despite the child’s objection, such a move was justified.

Lord Mulholland said: “Weighing up the child’s objection with all the other factors in the case, I am of the view that it is appropriate to order the child’s return to Sweden.”

The judge said arrangements were available to secure the protection of the child after her return to Sweden, where she was born. He said: “There is a risk that the child may be exposed to psychological harm. However, I do not consider this risk to have reached such a level of seriousness as to be characterised as grave.”