Woman acquitted of kidnapping son from Norwegian Child Welfare Services
A 46-year-old woman has been acquitted of kidnapping her son from the child welfare institution where he was placed. The court believes the woman had no other choice.
“The court has come to the conclusion that the accused had no other reasonable course of action than to take her son home to a safe and familiar environment,” the verdict from the district court in Eastern Norway reads, according to newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad.
The woman was accused of taking a minor out of the country without an agreement with the Child Welfare Services.
She lived in another country in Europe, but drove to Norway to pick up her son at a child welfare institution in Eastern Norway in January 2020.
A couple of days earlier, the son said he could not live if he continued living at the institution. The mother then promised that she would pick him up.
Unable to establish contact
The boy currently lives at home with his mother in Rogaland with his siblings.
When asked why she did not contact the Child Welfare Services to make a formal agreement to pick up her son, the woman answered that she was unable to contact them.
Stavanger’s head of child welfare did not want to comment on the case. The institution where the boy was staying when the woman picked him up has received criticism from the County governor.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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