I WEPT WITH JOY TO SEE MY TWO LOVELY BOYS PLAYING TOGETHER AGAIN AFTER MONTHS APART:
Hayes to see him four times a year. and I want my son to know his father.”
“We’ve found a wa y to come to an agreement which we hope will allow him to be the father he wants to be to Hayes. I can see that he loves his son, and I wouldn’t have denied him the opportunity to see him grow and be a part of Hayes’s life.”
She added: “I am just so relieved to be back home in Scotland, and I want to catch up on the time I lost with Alfie.
“It felt very lonely at times and I don’t know how I would have got through it without knowing people were raising my case back home and sending me their support. I can’t thank everyone enough.
“Now, I’m just looking forward to playing on the beach at Kinghorn with the boys, and getting on with just being a family.”
In February, the first minister discussed the situation with Leigha’s mum Cerry Collins and MSP Alex Rowley in an online conference call, and expressed her concern about the tragic case.
Yesterday, she welcomed the pair’s return, saying: “I can only imagine how difficult it has been for a mother and son to be separated from their closeknit family and support group over the past difficult months. This will lift a huge weight – not to mention financial burden – off the whole family.
“Their return to Scotland is a very special reunion – particularly for Hayes who is back with his big brother Alfie.
“This has been a protracted and trying set of circumstances and I know that at times it must have felt it was never going to end.” She added: “I’d like to thank the High Commission in Malta and my officials in the Scottish government for the support they provided the family.
“While it was inappropriate for me or the Scottish government to intervene on judicial matters – or to comment on the decision made by Lord Brailsford – I am thankful the whole family has been reunited.”
Leigha’s mum, 40, says the last year has also been a nightmare for her and husband Dougie, 49.
Cerry said: “Leigha’s the baby of our family and she’d never been away from home before so it was awful not knowing when we’d get to see her again.
“The worry of what she was facing, on her own in a strange country where everything was so different from how things are done in Scotland, was traumatising for us as well as Leigha.”
Dougie, added: “The relief of having Leigha and Hayes home with us is overwhelming, but it doesn’t stop our anger at how it was ever allowed to happen in the first place. We’ll be paying off lawyers’ bills for years.”