Man stopped from leaving with son

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 1

Man stopped from leaving with son

PA Auckland A warrant to prevent a boy, aged four, from being taken from New Zealand was issued by Mr J. R. Aubin, S.M. in Auckland yesterday. The boy is the son of a New Zealander who is a professor at an American university. The police said the father had arrived unannounced on a flight from the United States yesterday, had called at a daycare centre in Ponsonby about 10.15 a.m., had picked up his son, and had made straight for the airport. He was- stopped soon afterwards by airport police, while awaiting a flight

to Los Angeles. He was booked on a flight leaving at 2 p.m. and wait-listed on all others leaving before then. The police believe the man was foiled in his plans to take his son away without informing his estranged wife only by the suspicions of the day-care centre’s manageress, who telephoned the boy’s mother. His mother immediately telephoned the police, who sent men to the airport terminal to intercept the man and the boy. The child was taken to the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland where a warrant was issued in a brief hear-

ing. The boy was then handed over to the Social Welfare Department. No charge was laid by the police. It is believed the father could not be charged with abduction because it could not be positively established whether he knew of a custody order made in Auckland in March. The order granted custody of the child to his mother. The police said the father was believed not to have left on the 2 p.m. flight and was believed to be intending to lodge an appeal against the custody order. He could not be reached yesterday.