Three children abducted by father in Inverness to return to mother after case spanning 10 countries

Three children who were abducted by their father in Inverness and taken to 10 different countries are to be returned to their mother in Scotland after a decision by a court in Malta.

The Ukrainian children had been living with their parents at the Mercure Hotel in Inverness since July 2022 after fleeing their home country following the Russian invasion.

In October 2023, the three children left the hotel in a car with their father without the knowledge or consent of their mother and travelled to 10 countries over a period of three years.

The father denied abducting the children but the court ordered the children - aged 15, 13 and 11 - should be returned to their mother in Scotland.

The case spanned Ukraine, Poland, Wales, France, Canada, Mexico, Ukraine, Italy, Spain and Malta.

The court heard the three children had attended school, received medical care and started to become integrated into Scottish life in Inverness.

On 7 October 2023, the children's father drove them across the UK to France, where they remained until 15 October.

At the time, the children's mother had returned home to Ukraine to see her father, who was seriously ill with cancer, and the children had been left in the care of an older brother and nanny.

According to Maltese court documents, the mother reported the matter to Police Scotland, who stated it "did not regard the act as criminal and could not take steps at that stage".

The father and children then travelled to Canada, where they stayed for about two weeks in a hotel.

Canadian authorities and a lawyer became involved in the case and the father was ordered to surrender the passports and appear before the court within in two days.

Before the hearing, he fled to Mexico with the children.

The court heard he stayed there for about two weeks before returning to Ukraine for almost a year.

On 4 September 2024, the father fled the country with the children over the Hungarian border to an "unknown destination".

For several months, the children's mother had no information about where they were but later discovered the father had obtained new passports for the children in Rome.

She travelled to Italy, where criminal proceedings were started.

Proceedings under the Hague Convention - an international treaty designed to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed from or retained outside their country of habitual residence - were initiated by the Central Authority of Scotland.

After more than a year of receiving no firm information about where her children were, the mother spotted them coincidentally on a train on 2 April 2026.

She discovered the children were in Malta and their father had enrolled them in a school in Gozo.

A warrant was issued on 24 April and the children's passports were presented to the court.

On 10 July, the court, which took account of the practical circumstances of both parents and the thoughts of the children, ordered the children immediately return to their mother in Scotland.

The father, who denied abducting the children, launched an appeal but it was thrown out.

He told the court he had taken the children for a one-week holiday and the mother refused to give him the children's biometric residence permits which are mandatory for the return of children to the UK.

The Maltese court maintained the father should have never left Scotland before seeking the mother's consent and ensuring the children had the documents required for travelling purposes.

Court documents state: "Most of these travels after October 2023 were of the respondent's own making in the choices he made, rather than out of necessity.

"It is the court's view that this whole matter is a conundrum of the (father's) own making."