By Craig Nicol and Keleigh Robinson
Children – Contravention – Paternal grandmother “aided and abetted” father’s forcible abduction of the children from mother in a foreign country – Appeal from sentence of four months imprisonment dismissed
In Paige & Bellanger [2026] FedCFamC1A 59 (9 April 2026) the Full Court (Aldridge, Austin & Curran JJ) heard a paternal grandmother’s appeal from orders of Judge O’Shannessy, sentencing her to a term of imprisonment for her complicit contravention of parenting orders.
Final parenting orders were made in August 2021. The mother took the children to Africa. In January 2022, the father obtained warrants from an African court for the arrest of the children, mother and maternal family. The mother’s care was restored following her release from custody, but the children were then forcibly removed from her care by the paternal family on 15 March 2022.
After an 11 day contravention hearing, the paternal grandmother was sentenced to four months imprisonment and restrained from departing Australia until the youngest child attained majority ([26]).
As to the grandmother’s appeal, the Full Court said (from [90]):
“… The primary judge summarised how the appellant, by her words and actions, aided and abetted the father to forcibly abduct the children from the mother…
( … )
[99] … [T]he appellant was not personally bound by the parenting orders… but she was certainly not powerless to encourage her son to comply with the orders…
( … )
[107] … The appellant aided and abetted the father to forcibly abduct the children from the mother… It is not to the point the appellant was not personally bound by the orders because she was bound by law to observe the orders… Her actions… showed serious disregard for the father’s obligations… She was not a passive bystander. The primary judge found the appellant… ‘encouraged the [father] to remove the children’ … accomplished by the father wrenching them from her and abducting them by use of motorcycles… The consequence of her complicity was to enable the father’s continuing retention of the children from the mother with impunity.”
The appeal was dismissed. No costs order was made as the mother did not comply with a procedural order that required her to file and serve a costs schedule before the hearing.
