A judge has branded a mother who went on the run with her three-year-old son after becoming embroiled in a bitter custody battle with the boy’s father “utterly irresponsible”.

A three-year-old boy who was missing with his mother in England for more than two weeks is now “safely back” in the care of his father.

A judge hearing the case of a mother on the run with her three-year-old son has emphasised the importance of both parents maintaining a relationship with the boy “if at all possible”.

The mother at the centre of a custody battle in England who is on the run with her three-year-old son has broken her silence, saying she left with him because she felt “trapped”.