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Family united at last. Snatched children back after 16 months. |
Sixteen months of hell ended for a Perth mother early yesterday when
she got her children back home after they were allegedly abducted and
hidden overseas.
Jane day, 33, touched down at Perth International Airport with daughter
Alison, 3, and Justin, 5, following a harrowing custody battles.
The children were allegedly abducted by Mrs Day's wealthy parents, who
live in Malaysia and were upset about her split from the children's
father, a Hong Kong-based businessman, and her plans to marry Perth
nurse Geoffrey day.
It was an emotional moment for Mrs day, Justin and Alison as they
walked through the gates into the airport's arrival lounge and the arms
of Mr Day.
Justin and Alison's initial hesitation disappeared when they arrived at
their family home in Wilson and saw their bedroom, brimming with gifts
from Christmases and birthdays they had missed. Squeals of delight
filled the house as they opened one gift after another and began to
settle in.
The family's nightmare began while Mrs Day and the children were visiting her parents on malaysia's Labuan Island in May 2000.
It was during that visit that Mrs Day told her parents she planned to
divorce the children's father and marry Geoffrey Day - whom she had met
on the Internet after separating from her first husband.
Mrs Day said her mother went into a rage and demanded she end her
inter-racial relationship and make things work with her husband.
"My parents got very angry and started to hit me," she said. "They said
I had brought shame on the family, threw me out of the house and
refused to give the children's passports back to me." She was fearful
of her family that she returned to Perth without the children.
Mr Day said yesterday, "Jane's parents decided they would take custody
of the children since Jane was planning to marry a white man.
Jane has been under so much stress, she even tried to take her own life."
Since then Mr and Mrs Day - they married in December last year - have
been in and out of Australian, Malaysian, and Hong Kong courts in their
bid to regain custody of the Subiaco-born, Australian citizen children.
Their legal bill has blown out to more than $200,000 and has almost bankrupted them.
Their big break came after immigration officers prevented the children's father from taking them to China.
"Their passports were out of date and we got a court order issued to
prevent the children from leaving Hong Kong,' Mrs Day explained. She
subsequently reached an out-of-court agreement with ehr first husband,
which gave her sole custody of the children, and she has spent the past
three weeks with them in Hong Kong making up for lost time.
Mrs Day alleges her parents brainwashed the children, telling them she
didn't love them and Mr Day was the devil and would break them into
pieces.
"We have lined up child psychologists in order to establish how much damage has been done," Mr Day said.
The Days' plight prompted them to set up the Hug-Ur-Kids Organization to help other parents who have had their children abducted.
SOURCE: Sunday Times Newspaper,
September 9, 2001.
By Sandra Peterson
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