A mother who removed her son from the US to Ireland without his father's knowledge had not acted in breach of custody rights within the meaning of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the Supreme Court found yesterday.
The court overturned as "erroneous" a High Court decision that the child's removal was in breach of custody rights set out in the convention. But the court said the father was entitled to seek an order for custody or access here under the Guardianship of Infants Act or to invoke the convention.
The parents met in the US. They lived together for six years until the relationship broke down and the mother left the father. When the relationship broke down, a US court granted her a "temporary order of protection" - the equivalent of a barring order here. She was also granted interim custody of the child.
The father instituted proceedings in the US family courts, and the mother and child came to Ireland without the father being told. At a hearing in the US at which both parties were represented by lawyers it was ordered by consent of the parties that the child should be produced before the court in March 1997, and that any foreign police or applicable authority should be asked to assist in implementing the order.
In the event, the child was not produced and remained in Ireland.
In an affidavit, the mother said she feared the father would take the child to another country and that psychological damage could be caused to the child.