Deirdre’s death highlights risks of parental abduction

IT is of small comfort to Christine O’Sullivan that the tragic end to the parental abduction case she was embroiled in was exceptional, Justice Minister Michael McDowell told a conference yesterday.

Ms O’Sullivan’s daughter Deirdre was taken by her father Chris Crowley, who after two years as a fugitive shot the little girl and then himself.

“Her harrowing testimony...brings home in a very real way the risks associated with parental abduction,” Mr McDowell told the Irish Centre for Parentally Abducted Children conference.

But as a legal expert explained, Crowley, until he killed his daughter, committed no criminal offence. He was merely breaching a civil court order on access.

If Crowley had taken the child out of the country, he would have committed a criminal act, the penalty for which is up to seven years in jail. Regina Nelligan, Crowley’s friend, was convicted of abduction because she was not a legal guardian.

Solicitor Geoffrey Shannon, guiding delegates around the legal minefield of parental abduction, wants the law amended, without delay.

But, he added: “In a manner that will not prejudice domestic violence victims who leave the family home to escape the violence”.

Similarly, Mr Shannon said, legislation to give courts the power to order a person to reveal the whereabouts should be introduced.

Again, that power can only be exercised if the child has been taken out of the State.

Mary Banotti MEP, who helped found ICPAC, added that gardaí would then have the power to arrest and question witnesses where it is known the child has been taken by a parent.

Ms Banotti said her office regularly gets calls from people who have gone into the local garda station to report that a child has been taken by the other parent and been told there was nothing that could be done.

Gardaí can only work within the law. Detective Inspector Tom Dixon, of the domestic violence unit, revealed to the conference how gardaí deal with the civil and criminal elements of the law on child abduction.

In the Crowley case, Ms O’Sullivan has had the highest praise for gardaí who investigated her daughter's abduction.

But, as one delegate at yesterday’s conference pointed out, if Deirdre had been taken by a stranger, a nationwide manhunt would have been launched, with huge resources thrown into the investigation.