Dad abducts his daughters and takes them to Egypt

[DJKeefy]

A mother feared her two young daughters would be circumcised when they were abducted by their father and taken to Egypt.

He left the girls with relatives in Egypt and returned to the UK.

The mother was "absolutely terrified" and feared she would never see them again, Hull Crown Court heard.

When she flew out to find them, she was told "a Libyan couple had taken the girls".

Charlotte Baines, prosecuting, said she was "emotional, confused and stressed and believed the story".

But she was able to establish from Egyptian immigration officials the girls had not left the country.

It took her an agonising ten days to find her daughters, before a relative of her husband's said "the girls had been found", the court heard.

They were returned to their mother the next day.

The father, an Egyptian national, was arrested on his return to the UK and is now in prison awaiting sentence after admitting child abduction.

The girls eventually returned to Hull with their mother.

Miss Baines said the father had told his wife he was taking the girls to a trampoline park in Hull, but instead took them to Humberside Airport.

They then flew to Amsterdam before boarding a flight to Cairo. He called his wife on the day of the abduction, telling her "they were on their way to their destination and that she had led him to his actions".

She asked to speak to the girls, but the father initially refused, telling her she was "too upset".

"Eventually he put the eldest girl on the line, who said they were on an aeroplane," Miss Baines said.

The girls were not in distress and their mother did not believe they were in danger.

But she was "very upset" and called police.

The children were made Wards of the High Court, which included a female genital mutilation

Summarising the mother's victim statement, Miss Baines said: "She was extremely upset and distressed by the removal of her children.

"She was absolutely terrified about what might happen to them, and she was worried about, in effect, never seeing them again."

The court heard the man may have planned the abduction months in advance, as his wife recalled him obtaining photographs, and later recalled Egyptian passports for the girls arrived days before they were taken.

The couple were married but the relationship had deteriorated, the court heard.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, Recorder of Hull and East Riding, said: "What you cannot do is take the law into your own hands, and that's what he seems to have done."

"He has," said David Godfrey, defending.

Mr Godfrey said "he fully accepts that", and his client had made "a grotesque error of judgement".

He said: "He has messed up spectacularly and his life is now in tatters."

The man "loves his daughters dearly, who he lives for", Mr Godfrey said.

"He is deeply sorry for what he did, your honour."

Mr Godfrey said of the mother's FGM fears: "It's not something that was ever in his mind's eye.

"He's from a well-to-do family in Egypt, very forward thinking. He's perplexed as to how this ever came to be part of the narrative of this case."

The father was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced next month. The family cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Source: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/hull-mum ... story.html

[Dusak]

I think that the 'sudden' arrival of two Egyptian passports should of been a clue that something was amiss. Although I may be wrong in my assumption, she sounds like a contender for The Breakfast Time mag, ''My Egyptian husband took my kids as well as my cash.'' But at least they are now back home and safe.