Case studies
Case study “Benedict”
Benedict is the 3-year-old son of Kristine, a 32-year old Latvian nurse and Brian, a 34-year-old Irish engineer. Kristine and Brian met five years ago at a pub in Dublin where Kristine had just arrived to start a new job in a university hospital. They had an on-and-off relationship for over a year until Kristine got pregnant. They tried living together for awhile during the pregnancy but things did not work out. However, they were both very committed to being active parents and when their son Benedict was born in September 2009 they agreed that Brian should be appointed guardian of Benedict and signed the necessary paperwork for this. Benedict lived with his mother and spent Wednesday afternoons and every other weekend from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon with his father. At first his mother was hesitant to let him spend the night with his father but eventually she consented. As long as she had a job, she was happy enough with this arrangement and with living in Ireland, although she was homesick for her family and friends. In the course of the financial crisis, however, both Kristine and Brian lost their jobs. Brian was able to get a less qualified position helping out in his brother’s business, but Kristine was left high and dry, forced to survive on welfare and felt more and more uncomfortable living abroad – especially since she knew she could get a job back in Riga, so even if it wouldn’t pay well, at least she would be back home. She tried to talk to Brian about this possibility but he was absolutely opposed to it, saying he was afraid to lose Benedict. After all, what would keep Kristine from finding a Latvian husband, marrying and having another child and Brian would be left with nothing and no one – and maybe even have to pay child support for a child he never saw? But Kristine could not get the idea out of her mind and finally moved out of the blue one week in July when she knew Brian would have to work all week and was not scheduled to take Benedict for another 10 days. Brian was very upset by the fact that he was unable to reach Kristine by phone for over a week and when he went to her apartment to pick up Benedict for the weekend he discovered that they were both gone and the apartment was empty. He was so hurt, angry and desperate that he applied for Benedict’s return under the 1980 Hague Convention and also reported the matter to the police with a view to criminal charges being brought against Kristine for child abduction. Kristine was terrified to return for fear that she would be arrested and lose her child forever. The Hague proceedings are to take place in Riga in early November and the mediation is scheduled for a weekend in late October. The Latvian (female) mediator has a psychosocial background and speaks fluent English while the Irish (male) mediator has a legal background but does not speak Latvian.