Mum fighting extradition
A North East mother who fled from Canada with her two children after a split – and then tried to smuggle them into Jersey in a dinghy – says she is ready to face an extradition battle.
Lauren Etchells, 36, is now on £10,000 bail and under electronic curfew in Humberside. She is battling a bid to extradite her to Canada and denies child abduction charges following her break-up from former wife Tasha Brown, 47, of Vancouver Island.
Ms Etchells, originally from South Shields, told the Sunday Mirror: “The children are just absolutely fine, happy and healthy. And I am ready to fight this.”
The ex-school teacher’s escapades began after a bitter split from Tasha in 2016. The couple had a 19-month-old daughter through a sperm donor – but Lauren then fell for a businessman and they had a son together. She flew from Canada to Gatwick in 2016 with both children, sparking the Canadian police inquiry.
Then the family disappeared until 2019 when locals on Jersey spotted Lauren with her children and her parents trying to land a 13ft dinghy after a voyage from France.
Ms Etchells was arrested with her mum and dad Brian and Angela, both 70. They were given six-month suspended sentences for child endangerment, and fined for breaking the immigration laws by Jersey Magistrates Court. The child endangerment convictions were later set aside on appeal.
Ms Etchells later handed herself in to police to fight the legal bid to extradite her to Canada.
She appeared before Westminster Magistrates to face the extradition charge, with a full hearing due in October. She denies the abduction charges against her.