SA mother who fled Denmark in the middle of the night must return son to father

A MOTHER, who clandestinely took her six-year-old child in the middle of the night from where she and her now estranged husband lived in Denmark, has now been forced, through a court order, to return the child to her husband in Denmark.

- ZELDA VENTER [e-mail]

The Central Authority of South Africa and the father of the child turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, to enforce the terms of the Hague Convention relating to international child abduction, to which South Africa is a signatory.

The father told the court that the child should be returned to his country of habitual residence in Fredericia, Denmark, from where he was unlawfully removed in August and wrongfully retained by his mother.

The mother, on the other hand, claimed the father gave consent for her to bring the child with her to South Africa. She further argued that if returned, the child would be exposed to a grave risk of physical and psychological harm.