JAILED: Father abducted son and whisked him off to Egypt

Warwick Crown Court heard the primary school aged boy from Walsall had been snatched because of his father’s obsession that not being raised as a Muslim would have a devastating effect on him.

The 43-year-old father, whose address is not known and who cannot be named to protect the identity of the boy, was jailed for five years and 11 months.

He had pleaded guilty to abducting the youngster, who is now rebuilding his life with his mother in this country.

The couple had met while the boy’s mother was on holiday in Sharm El Sheikh, and they later married, but the relationship broke down.

Samantha Crabb, prosecuting, said in August 2014 the boy’s mother agreed that the defendant could take him for a day out to Legoland in Windsor – but they never returned.

The police were contacted but the father had fled with him to Egypt.

They were sheltered by his family as his mother desperately tried to track him down. The authorities became involved, but the defendant moved from address to address.

On one occasion it was heard that he even fled across rooftops in Cairo with the boy to evade the Egyptian police, but the youngster was eventually located in July last year and brought back home. His father was arrested when he returned to the UK in November.

Jailing the father and making a restraining order banning him from having any contact with his ex-wife or their son, Judge Sarah Buckingham said he had subjected the boy to a ‘horrendous four years’.

Of the motive, she commented: “There was a degree of spite behind it as well, but you are a man of religion who thought you were doing your best for your son.”