A MAN who abducted his partner’s two children was spared a jail sentence by Judge Yvonne Murphy after the court heard their mother wanted to forgive him.
The court had heard that the man threatened to kill himself and the children following a row between the couple. He drove the children from their school in Dublin to Mullingar, Co Westmeath, where they spent the night in a car.
His mobile phone was tracked and the next day gardaí arrested him after spotting his car.
The 35-year-old man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to kidnapping the children on March 8th, 2010.
Det Garda Gary McEntee told Fiona Murphy, prosecuting, that the children were unharmed and had been fed and well looked after.
He said the couple had made some effort to try to repair the relationship and that the children’s mother was trying to forgive him.
Laurence Masterson, defending, said that during the almost two- year relationship, the woman’s children had come to regard his client as their father. At one point she had left the children in his care for two weeks.
Mr Masterson said his client was deeply sorry and accepted that children should not be used as “pawns in disputes between adults”. He had panicked after taking the children initially because he had made a false comparison in his head between the Garda and the police authorities in his home country in Africa.
Judge Murphy said the man was at a low risk of reoffending and sentenced him to two years, which she suspended in full.