A French appeal court has confirmed a judgment that ordered the return of a toddler to Malta after it found that his Irish mother kept him in France unlawfully when the family were there over Christmas in 2021.
The mother had fled with the child the day before the family were due to fly back to the island.
The boy, who is now three years old, was born in Malta in 2019 and was living here with his Maltese father and Irish mother.
He was returned to Malta in May 2022, five months after leaving for what was meant to be a holiday with his unmarried parents to France.
Back then the Civil Court of Marseille noted that the couple had cohabited since August 2018. Each had their own accommodation, with the father based in Malta and the mother having a registered address in Monaco.
Their child was born on December 21, 2019. The mother claimed she had been staying in Malta at length with the child because of medical complications she experienced after childbirth and also because the global COVID-19 pandemic prevented her from returning to France.
However, it was later proven by the father that she had severed all ties with her former residence in Monaco in order to settle in Malta.
At the end of 2021, the family went on a family Christmas holiday. They left Malta on December 22 and had tickets to return on January 7. However, the day before they were due to fly back, the mother fled with the child in her father’s car.
On January 8, 2022, the boy’s father, through his lawyer Robert Thake, brought an action through the Maltese central authority to denounce the child’s international abduction.
The French court noted that, under Article 3 of the Hague Convention, the removal or retention of a child is considered illegal if it breaches the rights of custody attributed under the law of the state in which the child is habitually resident immediately before the removal.
Under Maltese law, the two parents were exercising their right of custody in January 2022.
The court found that Malta was the child’s place of habitual residence as he was born in Malta, a country of which he was a citizen. He had regular medical checks and attended a kindergarten here.
By leaving with the child without giving any news, the mother had “undeniably unlawfully removed the child from his habitual place of residence”, the court ruled, ordering the child’s return.
The court found that Malta was the child’s place of habitual residence as he was born in Malta, a country of which he was a citizen. He had regular medical checks and attended a kindergarten here
The mother took the case to the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal in which she argued France was also the child’s place of habitual residence.
Her story was covered in both the Irish and the French press. The case was even mentioned in the Irish Parliament after the mother went to an MP with her version.
In the media reports she alleged that when the French gendarmes went to take the boy, following the court order to return him to Malta in May 2022, her son was torn from her arms by “a whole squad of soldiers”.
She also claimed that the father was not a suitable parent and alleged sexual and psychological abuse.
But the French appeal court shot down both claims. It noted that, according to the bailiff’s report, the mother had agreed to the return of the boy.
“After giving her son a brief hug, she spontaneously handed the boy over,” the bailiff said, adding that the child was immediately handed over to the father who was waiting in a car outside the French home.
As for the allegations of abuse, the court noted they were never the subject of a complaint in Malta and no longer repeated in her appeal pleadings, in which she mainly argued that the boy would spend time at the crèche as his father was always busy.
As for the child’s removal from Malta, the court noted that, since the parents had joint custody, the mother could not decide to change the child’s habitual residence abroad without the other parent’s agreement.”
The court dismissed the mother’s appeal. She can still take her case before the Paris Supreme Court.