LCJ calls for tougher sentences for child abduction

The Court of Appeal has called for a review of child abduction law as it dismissed the sentence appeals of two fathers convicted of abducting their children.

Child abduction, the Lord Chief Justice said, could be regarded as kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, compared to seven years for child abduction.

Giving the court's ruling in R v Kayani and Solliman [2011] EWCA Crim 2871, Lord Judge said child abduction was 'an offence of unspeakable cruelty', before adding that any reference in mitigation to the right to family life, whether at common law or under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, was 'misconceived'.

Lord Judge went on to confirm the jail sentences imposed on the two fathers, saying that in such cases a prison sentence of a length reflecting the culpability of the offenders and the harm caused was 'entirely appropriate'.

'We can see no reason why the offence of child abduction should be placed in a special category of its own when the interests of the children of the criminal fall to be considered,' he said.

Although the father in Kayani had entered a guilty plea, the Lord Chief Justice said the circumstances of the case were so 'outrageous' that his sentence of five years, at the higher end of the scale, 'was not manifestly excessive'.

He also confirmed the three-year sentence in Solliman as 'appropriate', adding that 'had it been somewhat longer, we should have been unlikely to interfere'.

In both cases '“ otherwise unrelated '“ the fathers had abducted their children for several years and taken them abroad. They were sentenced under the Child Abduction Act 1984.