Court in Cayman orders father to bring child home from Turkey

GEORGETOWN, Cayman Islands, CMC –  A man who took his eight year old daughter, who was born in the Cayman Islands, to Turkey has been ordered to take her home.

The ruling was handed down by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on Wednesday.

According to court documents, the child was taken to her father's native country without the knowledge or consent of her mother who lives in Cayman.

The ruling in the confidential case that was released with reporting restrictions on identifying the family members, revealed that last month, the father told the mother he was taking the child to the movies but instead took her on a flight to London and then on to Istanbul in Turkey.

It's reported that hours later, the father called the mother to say that he was with the child at a local hotel and would bring her home by noon. Later that day, the mother called the police, who were able to confirm that the child and the father had left on a British Airways flight to London and onward to Turkey.

The mother was told that her husband had purchased one-way tickets, and she also learned that day that he had asked his business partner to buy out his interest.

The following day, the father admitted that they were in Turkey and sent messages asking the mother to join them there.

In court, the judge said he was satisfied that the court had jurisdiction to make orders in relation to the child. Having found that the child was wrongfully taken from Cayman and having considered the “welfare checklist” in relation to the Hague Convention, with the child's welfare his paramount consideration, he issued an order requiring the father to return the child to Cayman immediately and blocked him from getting her education records.

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