Govt to discuss abductions

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 8

Govt to discuss abductions

PA Wellington The Government plans to discuss with the Australian authorities the problems faced by parents trying to recover abducted children from Australia. The recommendation stems from the case of a Christchurch mother who has flown home with her son, aged seven, after becoming frustrated by efforts to gain legal custody of her child from the children’s home where he was placed by his father. Mrs Doris Church, of the Battered Women’s Support Group, said on Monday that Christopher Fell had been taken to Australia 4Vz years ago. His mother, Mrs Elizabeth Fell, found him last year when the support group arranged her trip to Australia.

Ms Fell, aged 28, began negotiating with Australian courts to have her son returned to her, although she had legal custody of the child in New Zealand, said Mrs Church.

Although Ms Fell agreed to stay and get to know her

child again, the Australian authorities had taken a hard line and she had felt the only thing to do was pick up the child and leave, said Mrs Church.

The Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, said yesterday that he agreed with recommendations by his department that the Government should raise the problems of attempts to recover abducted ex-nuptial children from Australia.

The department had also recommended investigating the provision of some legal aid for New Zealanders in overseas courts in cases of abduction, and to re-ex-amine the adequacy of the Guardianship Act’s structure and penalties, he said.

Mr Palmer was asked in January by Mrs Church to investigate the alleged abductions of Christopher Fell, and Ms Gillian Pocklington’s son, Jeffrey, aged one, who was recovered by his mother in January this year, almost four months after he was taken to Australia.

A departmental report on

the cases released yesterday by Mr Palmer said that although the system of registering in Australia and enforcing New Zealand custody orders had worked in the case of Ms Pocklington,' reuniting them “fairly quickly,” it was “probably fair to conclude” that the system did not work for Ms Fell.

The report blames this on a lack of constructive action by the West Australian police and a delay of three years between 1981 and 1984 when the matter was not pursued. Mr Palmer was told by his department that the cases did not reveal any deficiences in the sections of the Crimes Act, 1961, and the Guardianship Act, 1968, that provided criminal remedies for the abduction of children or their illegal removal from New Zealand.

Instead, the Secretary for Justice, Mr James Callahan, told Mr Palmer that a better approach might be to reexamine the Guardianship Act section that provides a maximum penalty of $5OO

fine or three months imprisonment, or both, for taking a child out. of New Zealand without court permission while proceedings were in force.

“Possibly, the more serious behaviour in the section could be incorporated in a new offence in the Crimes Act,” said Mr Callahan. He said Mrs Church’s complaint about the criminal provisions really related to the way they had been applied by the New Zealand police, who were preparing their own report on the cases. Extradition had been available but it was a police decision on whether they used extradition in any given case. On civil remedies for child abduction, Mr Callahan said a New Zealand custody order could be sent to Australia for registration, after which it would have the same effect as if it were an order of an Australian court.

But where a child was born outside a marriage, state Governments rather

than the Australian Federal Government had jurisdiction.

In such a case, the Family Court would have no jurisdiction in custody proceedings for a child and a state Supreme Court would have to apply the relevant law of the state to issue a warrant and have the custody order enforced. The report said the West Australian police had apparently been reluctant to enforce a warrant for the return of Christopher Fell, and his father had disappeared after he was told by the police of its existence.

“The failure of the Western Australian police to act constructively in this instance shows a possible flaw in the registration and enforcement system, but it is not one that the New Zealand authorities can do much about.” it said. Mr Palmer said he agreed with the department’s analysis of the cases and that work was proceeding on their recommendations.