A Scottish teenage mother and her one-year-old son have been forced to travel 2,000 miles to Malta during the coronavirus pandemic after the Scottish courts ruled that she illegally abducted the child when she left the island last December without the consent of the Maltese father.

Leigha Collins, 18, and her son arrive in Malta on Tuesday and will be spending two weeks in mandatory quarantine in a hotel room.

“The court ordered that we have to return to Malta. Me and my son will be staying in a hotel alone for two weeks. I feel horrible,” Collins said from her parents’ home in Fife where she was packing for her trip.

“I’m so scared for me and my son. I have no idea what will happen next.”

Collins had moved to Malta three years ago with her parents. She met the father of her son on Facebook and then in a Paceville bar. Collins, who already had a child from a previous relationship, started a relationship with the father and got pregnant. Eventually, her parents returned to Scotland.

In December last year, she followed them back to Scotland after her relationship with the father, who is 19, broke down amid her allegations of violence, she said.

Collins made this argument before the Court of Session in Edinburgh where the father had started child abduction proceedings under the Hague Convention.

Judge Lord Brailsford ruled that the child ought to be returned to Malta where he was born since there was no dispute about the removal without the consent of the father and there was no doubt that the father had custody rights in terms of law.

During the case, Collins argued that there was “grave risk” in returning to Malta. The judge noted how she spoke about an “intolerable situation” and made reference to “alleged criminal conduct on the part of the petitioner.

“However, it seems clear, not in fact disputed, that criminal activity has not been proven and it may be that the matter is before the Maltese Courts, but I do not consider that I can make anything in all candour about a criminal charge which is subject to due process of law,” the judge ruled.

The judge noted the father was in full-time employment and was legally obliged by Maltese law to provide for the child.

“In those circumstances, I am not satisfied that the respondent has made out the grave risk defence… I intend to make the return order,” he ruled.

In light of this, the court ordered the return of the child aboard a repatriation flight since the child is considered a Maltese citizen.

Once Collins and her son arrive on Tuesday they will have to start discussions on custody – after the two-week mandatory quarantine is over.