Child abduction by a parent is rare, but stories have appeared in the news more regularly in recent times. The increase in travel availability, better links with foreign countries and introduction of low cost airlines means that cases where one parent takes a child on holiday and is pursued by the other parent on abduction charges are more common. To avoid any illegal activity and ensure you can relax and enjoy holidays with your child without wondering what court action will be waiting for you on your return or risking arrest, make sure you understand the law surrounding abduction.
If you're concerned about your ex partner potentially relocating abroad with your child without permission, you can check your legal position using our free Moving Away Rights Checker.
What Does Abduction Mean?
According to the Child Abduction Act 1984:
"…a person connected with a child under the age of 16 commits an offence if he takes or sends a child outside of the United Kingdom without the appropriate consent."
This means that any situations in which you leave the UK with your child without official consent can be classed as abduction. There are two separate offences: one of removal, and one of keeping, according to the case of Foster v DPP [2005].
You are 'a person connected with a child' if you are their parent, guardian, or have a residence or contact order in respect of that child.
The 'appropriate consent' means the consent of the child's mother, father (if he has parental responsibility), guardian and any person who has a residence order or custody of the child. The amount of consent needed will depend upon your circumstances. Your right to take your child abroad will depend on the access you are granted too.
You do not however need any person's consent to remove a child under 16 from the United Kingdom for up to one month if you have a sole residence order in favour of the child.
It is however always best to discuss your plans with your former partner even if you do not need their consent. If they removed your children from the UK, even if it was just for a holiday, what would you think? Would you panic that they were gone forever? They do not have to agree to your plans, or even like them, but they are less likely to start misguided, but time-consuming court proceedings in the short time you are away if they know when you are going, and where. If you are able, you could even ask your children to keep in touch with their other parent whilst you are away (eg via a short telephone call or via skype or email).
As detailed above, a parent can legally abduct their own child. It is true that it is not an offence for a mother to remove a child from the country without the consent of a father without parental responsibility. The same applies in reverse, though it is less common for mothers not to have parental responsibility as their name is automatically put on the child's birth certificate. Case law shows that it is however more common for women to commit child abduction than men, and the courts take a very hard line in these cases.
Can a Child be Abducted Within the UK?
Although the legal systems of some countries within the UK are distinctly different, (eg Scotland has different laws to England and Wales), all matters involving child movement are governed by the same laws. If you move your child within the UK, it cannot be classed as abduction, as long as you have Parental Responsibility. However if you decide to move within the UK, the other parent can still seek the return of your child through court proceedings.
In order to prevent the hassle of court proceedings, and potentially having to move back somewhere after a recent relocation, it is always best to notify your former partner of your intent to move. If they do not want you to move, they can instigate court proceedings in the form of a Prohibited Steps Order under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 to attempt to prevent this. Of course these court proceedings would still be a hassle, but surely it is better to deal with any potential problem before you move, rather than move and risk being told that you have to move back.
If one partner moves with a child elsewhere in the UK, you can obtain their return if this results in a breach of any contact order. Under Part 1 of the Family Law Act 1986, a contact order is enforceable in any part of the United Kingdom once registered with the court (despite Scottish courts having a different legal system).
If you do not have a contact order in place, you can apply for one from the courts. Alternatively, if you already have parental responsibility, you can apply for a Prohibited Steps Order under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989. (You need to fill in form C100 (you can get a copy at here and pay a £200 court fee to apply).
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Even if you both have parental responsibility, you have the right to take your child on holiday.
It is highly advisable that you seek the agreement of the mother before taking your trip, as it can be classed as abduction if all people with parental responsibility have not given consent. Taking your child out of the country without letting the mother know will also reflect badly on you in future legal proceedings, while aggravating the relationship between you and your child's mother. If the mother is unavailable to give consent, or if consent is being 'unreasonably withheld', then this consent does not need to be given.
You will not commit an offence under the Child Abduction Act 1984 if you remove the child:
- a) In the belief that the other person has consented, or would consent if they were aware of all the relevant circumstances.
- b) Having taken all reasonable steps to communicate with the other person but have been unable to communicate.
- c) Following the other person unreasonably withholding consent.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
What if You Don't Have Parental Responsibility?
If you have not got parental responsibility, you have no right to take your child abroad at all. It can be classed as abduction as soon as you begin travelling with your child and you may face criminal prosecution. There are a number of offences you can be charged with, including child abduction, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
If your relationship with your former partner is good and you still want to take your child out of the UK, you must be granted permission by them to do so. Failure to obtain consent is a quick way to upset your former partner, which in turn may well cause your child distress.
The UK has signed both The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 and the European Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Concerning Custody of Children. These Acts allow signatory countries to take action to assist each other in returning children to their home country. They have had great success to date, finding and returning children abducted abroad in average in 11.5 weeks.
Applying to Move Abroad Permanently?
If your aim is to move permanently with your child to a foreign country and your other partner does not agree with the move, you will find some obstacles in your way. To be granted a move you must prove to a court that you have a reasonable and realistic plan which has the best interests of your child's welfare at heart. Obviously, if your plan involves taking your child to a country where contact with the mother will be limited, the child's welfare will be called into question.
The law will always try to consider the child's feeling in these situations, depending on age and understanding. Children over the age of 11 will normally have a deciding say in the relocation, while if a teenager expresses a wish to remain in the UK, it is very rare that a court will demand that they leave with the parent.
If wish to take your child abroad, either for a holiday or to live abroad, make sure that you keep the other parent informed. It is far better to work with the courts than against them, and being arrested abroad is never fun, even if you are later released without charge!
Friday came and my 4yr old was not at the childminders and all comms with ex have been fruitless she is not at her home and has not been to nursery other than she is staying with her until further notice and it won’t be 50/50, I don’t know where she is and I have 4 siblings from a previous relationship that I have full PR for wondering where their little sister is, the legal process seems so slow is there anyone who can advise as I am going out of my mind wondering what I can do
I want to go find her myself but fear this isn’t the best move for the child but I also don’t trust the mothers state of mind…
My ex is British I'm not my child British with his surname.
Me and my ex share a Cortada by eight-year-old son has to stay with my ex I have contact and parent responsibility my ex has left UK and has taken our son with him he sent me a day when they were going abroad for a family holiday on 25/6/19 but they left on 18/6/19 what can I do
My wife and I split two years ago and recently told me that my son can’t stay overnight with me. This came about after I had an argument with her sister when she suggested that my two and a half year old son’s aggressive behaviour was a result of him staying with me. He stays with me once a fortnight.
She’s now accusing me of taking recreational drugs and says I need to pass a drug test and get anger management (she and I partied when we first met 10 years ago, I’m 44 now and those days are long gone) before I can see my son again.
What can I do?
She’s deliberately trying to stop me from seeing him over Christmas.
What are my rights as a father? How can I stop her from doing this?
Thank you
Thanks
I'm not asking her to leave the baby with me. I know she takes care of the baby really well. So, I'm fine if my baby lives with his mum. But I want him to be in the UK as he will learn English and my language as well. But if he lives there I will not be able to communicate with him.
We were talking about this for a few days now but we can't come to a decision as she doesn't want to come back to the UK.
I want to take legal action against this if necessary.
As far as I know this is child abduction as I didn't grant a written permission for her to take the baby out of the country and stay there forever.
My questions are;
Can I take legal action?
If the case goes to the court do you think the court will decide in my favour?
How long the whole process will take?
How much will it cost?
Thank you
I got married to a my ex partner who is a Bangladeshi national. I am a british born bangladeshi and have always lived in the UK all my life. After being in the country for 2 years she made false allegations of domestics against me for which i was first convicted for. However I was found not guilty at my appeal.We have a 2 year old son who she fled with when he was 2 months old.After he turned 1 she lets me have him over at home for upto a week at a time. Since then she sent me divorce papers and is now demanding i give her my passport number so she can get a passport for him and take him abroad. However I do not conse t this as she has already denied me and my son not to have any contact for over the 10 months and believe as soon as she gets him a passport she will flee again. But she is also threatening me that i wont see my son again if i dont give her my passport number. What do I do because i dont rhink I can take it if I loose my son again. We have both not got any court orders or child arrangment orders of any kind in place as me being able tohave contact with my son again was arranged through my own family contacting my ex.
Also, if I was to give my passport number to her and she was to make a passport for my son, would she be given an indefinate leave to remain in the UK?
Their dad (who has PR) has not financially supported his children in over two years, I was granted an injunction against him (violent and emotionally/financially abusive) and in that time he didn't see them for 6 months. It took for me to call him to arrange contact. Social services reported little to no contact between him and them and there was no intention to see the children, certainly no arrangements were made.
He hasn't seen them for 2 months this time and has now reared his ugly head again and is demanding to see them. They have spoken on the phone a couple of times and he has asked to have them at the weekend.
Although I have always encouraged their relationship, I can't help but think we'd be better off leaving the country and starting a new life away from him and the traumatic memories.
Can I just leave and never come back? I have a job and an apartment out there - plus a wonderful bun have of friends aching for us to join them.
Anyone have any advice?
Many thanks
Everything in our relationship was normal. We never, ever, agued, there was no physical or mental abuse, my wife just announced that she missed her family and was fed up with not having much money. Crazy reasons if you ask me! But now I am struggling to get to Skype with my children and I really want my children living back with me.
Where do I stand as the children's father? Has she 'abducted' my children? If so, how do I get them back?
We have been living in Fuertevenutra for 2weeks short of 4years and 3 weeks ago my wife decided that she had had enough of living here and has taken our 3 children back to the UK to live. She is being financially supported by her parents and sister.
What rights do I have to get my children back.
My eldest 2 have spent more of their lives living here in Fuerteventura and are fluent Spanish for their ages. My son was one of the top 5 students in his class. The school is an all spanish school with only 3 English children there, 2 of those were mine.
My youngest was going to a Spanish nursery and loved it also.
Everything in our relationship was normal, no violence, no arguing, neither one of us has cheated on the other, everything seemed to be fine. My wife was also due to start a new job as an english teacher.
Is this classed as child abduction? Where do I stand with regards getting my children back?
At the beginning of the summer holidays she took the children for a two week break 300 miles away to Devon as she always does ( She is originally from ther and her parents live in the area) The day that she was due to come back , she text my son to say she was not coming back and had found a job and house over there. He had absolutely no knowledge that she was planning to move away with his daughter. She will not divulge her new address. He is absolutely devastated. Where does he stand in the eyes of the law. ?
i do see my daughter every week once overnight i have her but im concerned for my childs saftey. her new man could generally be nice but i would like more information about him too.
My youngest child is disabled, he has called him a spastic and denied he was his. He has had a DNA test confirming that he is his dad. He had very little relationship with him and favours the eldest. Since the contact between them has stoped, the children have come on leaps and bounds. Extremely happy and behaviour is golden, where it was far from desirable before...
He says to everyone that he wants to see the kids, however has never made any attempts apart from turning up at my house kicking off. He has never go to get a court order, nor tried mediation. I did try mediation but he didn't show up. He has got PR as he is on the birth certificate for both children.
I am moving from the Midlands to Scotland In the summer, as it would've been 2 years since he had seen the kids, do I need to tell him? Could he stop me? I don't think he would go to court, he has made no attempts to get a court order to see them, but it does frighten me that her could make me move back, or even stop me from going.
Reyna - 17-Oct-15 @ 7:41 PM
Can me Ex legally take my son out of the country if we have an on going custody case?
What should I do?
MOther's partner has physically mentally abused the child in 2013, 2014, no one done anything. Police was in his school 2 times, i needed to bring him home.
Anyway, last week I made application C79 and C100 for urgent hearing and official act to be taken by court and guardian.
I reported it to the Police.
Today I called the mother's partner's workplace where he has been working for 10 years, and the hotel told me that the guy resigned a week ago, and yesterday left the UK.
I called the Police telling them everything, and stated as seriously planned child abduction. She breached 2 court orders in the last 6 weeks.
The Police told me:
- Is she the resident parent at the moment? (police)
- Yes (me)
- Did she breach court order is there any proceedings still on? (police)
- yes, the court wants to make a decision about our son;s long future on the 1st of Septemeber - in 1 week -where and with who he should live. (me)
Police: - we are so sorry, but if the mother is the resident parent at the moment, she can take the child away even she has been breaching court orders. We can not do and will not do anything.
Wowowowow......!
So what can I do then?
Me and my partner been separated for a year now. I have never denied him access to see his child, In Fact I tried so hard to reconcile.
I went abroad whilst trying to contact him but to no avail he ignored every thing to the point where I told his sister that I'm going abroad as my grandfather (now deceased) had cancer and she was the first great granddaughter he wanted to see. So obviously I went abroad and he summons me to court how I abducted our child. He is not a British citizen and he is only using her to stay in the country lol he has even mentioned that to me.
Anyway the court has granted him access and he was ment to see her every two weeks for 3months until further notice.
He has not been in contact with our child ever since and we are coming up to the next court date.
It's very clear that he's not bothered but only using that for immigration use only.
My question is will he be in trouble because even still I have tried for him to see our child and have evidence of that.
Kind Regards
Babybatts007
She has used delay tactics time and time again and used excuse after excuse not to turn up to any of the hearings. The most recent hearing was again adjourned as she claimed my son needed surgery however after obtaining details from the hospital it also turns out this is a lie (which in my opinion is sick to claim your son is ill).
Anyway....these delay tactics have been done to allow her time to move away. She used to live close to me but she has now disappeared, according to her neighbours, the house is empty so it looks like she has done a "runner". I believe this is what she was intending to do all along when I look back...
My question is: what can I do? I have a vague idea of which area she MAY have moved to but that's it. My son has just turned 1 year old and I haven't seen him in months! I have done everything the court has asked me to do and it just seems she can get away with all these lies and not turning up to any hearing. It is tearing me apart not seeing my son and every time i get a little closer she pulls another trick out.
The next court date is another 6 weeks away (based on her lies about my son's surgery and recovery time) but I have a feeling she will not turn up again and is just hoping to disappear off the radar.
Is there anything I can do to at least know where my son is living so I can advise the court? Or should I even advise the court?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Commitments here ( no contractual employment, just rented accommodation etc)
He has always wanted to move back to Canada and it was always the children keeping him in the uk.
What steps can I put into place? We never went to court preferring to settle the separation and access to children amicably. This has worked to a degree however sadly i don't completely trust him. If he didn't return on his return date would I need to fight it in Canada or legally would he need to return to uk? I just want reassurance rather than potential stress and upset for the children and myself later.
I would be very grateful for any advice or information.
i dont want to go to court but i will if i have to.
speaking with my child or seeing her every other month is just not enough.
i did not get to say goodbye neither did my family.
if i cant get the mother to sign a parental responsibility form i will try mediation.
then if that fails i guess i'll have to go down the court route going for as many orders as i feel are important to my daughter with regards to our relationship.
its not fair on my daughter the way she left she must be traumatised.
This sadly isn't true as I have discovered to my cost and loss - all the mother has to do is go down the payne vs payne route and use the 'distress argument' then family judges (especially older male ones) will allow the mother to do exactly as she pleases - Scottish courts value fathers to a degree, English courts don't.
Now in the UK, I have my daughter in a great school, she is very happy, and also terrified that she has to go back to DR. She dislikes her mother and now I am having trouble getting her to speak with her mother on Skype, as agreed, but she does after a bit of persuation.
Now the mother is asking me for mor money, and when I refuse basically because she has an awful attitude, and only brings about misery, she has started screaming on that I must take our daughter back or she will cause trouble. This starts onky when I refuse to send money. Bare in mind she can not support herself, she lives in a house with no toilet nor kitchen, basically a shed, and in a very dangerous barrio, and so no parent wanting the best for thier child woukd want them taken to that environment, especially when it is evident how happy our daughter is here. Nice house, loving family, great school, good secure life.
My daughter was born in Dominican Republic, but now is a British Citizen, we went through a long process getting tests done, I have been on birth certificate since birth etc. But she is a British citizen now, full passport, NHS number the lot.
She is 5 going on 6. Can the mother actually do anything? I keep them in contact with Skype and photos etc so I am fulfilling my side of what I can do.
Your advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
I did not intent to write as much as I have so I thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.
(didnt all fit in)
Early 2013 my child’s mother began refusing me access and so I began court proceedings. At the time he was 10yr old. One day I picked him up from school and we spent a day together down at my new house.
She contacted the police and they in turn telephoned me asking for me to return him. I told them he was safe and well and we would return at a specific time, which we did. On our return the police did not charge me with any crime.
When I contacted a solicitor she informed me that they could indeed have charged me but I cannot remember what she called it nor can I find this information/the name of the crime anywhere.
Last year a Bar Report was made, which has many inaccuracies, all to my detriment, which has left me extremely distressed.
She [the Bar Reporter] has claimed that that day I ‘abducted’ my son and later goes on to say that I ‘kidnapped’ him.
She also states that I have a conviction for drug possession and a conviction for racism. At the time I had a criminal case pending for both charges however I was rightly found not guilty/acquitted on both accounts.
After I read the report and what she attributed to the social worker who was involved with my family I contacted the SWD and they had to contact the bar reporter to make her aware of her errors. There has been no love lost between the SWD and myself but even they had to correct the reporter, again all inaccurate inclusions were detrimental to my cause.
My partner, mother and myself all have issues with inclusions and exclusions from our interviews that feature in the Bar Report.
This report has already gone before a Sheriff in court and after reading it and listening to the mother’s solicitor I was denied interim parental rights and contact and have not had contact with my son to date. All this time my [our] daughter had been living with me from late 2012. She was 14yrs old at the time.
Dates have now been set for a Proof Hearing in the summer but I have read on many sites that for a father they rarely provide a positive outcome and the impression I received from the Sheriff was that they had already made the mind up on the matter however they had to grace me a Proof Hearing.
I was hoping you could answer the following questions for me.
What, if any was the crime I committed by picking my son up from school without his mothers consent?
Did I, as the Bar Reporter claims actually ‘kidnap’ and/or ‘abduct’ my son?
What can I do about the untruths that the ‘impartial’ Bar Reporter has included in her report? Are the slanderous or libelous and what do I do if they are?
The pain, worry and anguish they have caused and indeed mental torture I have endured through many a sleepless night and irrational thinking from the effects of her words
I am an Indian man and got married an European women , we have an 18 month old baby my wife visited to her house from india for a month and I gave her letter signed where I mention she can travel with my son And now she refuses to come back saying she does not like india to live any more .when I ask her about our son she replys if you want to live with us should live here in Europe , as i am a business man I have everything here and their in Europe I have nothing , please advice me how can I get back my son . As I didn't know my wife's institutions we had never any arguments don't know why she is doing that , all I know my son will suffer there , please advice me
Thank you
Does he have any rights to stop her from taking his daughter abroad without his permission let alone allow her parents to by themselves?
Usually he has no problems with the ex taking his daughter abroad but he feels aggrieved that not only did she not tell him where his daughter was but also did not go herself. Please advise, thanks
My boyfriends, ex girlfriend took their son away to another part of the country after an argument. Ido not know who was in the right or wrong etc. anyway she has now not told him where his son is and for the past year he has not been able to qualify for any help not can he afford a solicitor, which is frustrating as I work in criminal law.
Is there any way we can find the whereabouts of his son and in a legal fashion of corse, we do not want to burst through her door but merely get visitation rights for him.
I just believe he has the right to see his son.
Please anything would be a big help.
Thank you
Is this abduction? What can I do?
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