Child abduction

The Law Commission has recommended new statutory offences of kidnapping and unlawful detention to replace the common law in this area.

It makes the recommendations in a report, Simplification of the Criminal law: Kidnapping and related offences, published this week, and also calls for changes to the law of child abduction.

According to Sarah Taylor, research assistant at the Law Commission, who writes in NLJ this week, a criminal offence would enable an extradition request to be made in order to recover the abductor. The return of the abducted child might then be an indirect effect of this in many cases.

Taylor said the wrongful separation of a child from a parent could have a “devastating effect” on all involved.