The accused pleaded guilty to abduction in contravention of a custody order.
She had abducted her daughter in 1993 when the child was approximately two years old, believing the child's safety was at risk.
The accused and child lived under assumed identities for 18 years until the accused's arrest in 2011.
The court imposed a conditional sentence of two years less one day followed by two years of probation, finding that while general deterrence and denunciation are paramount in child abduction cases, the unique mitigating circumstances—including the accused's traumatic childhood, early guilty plea, remorse, and the victims' wishes for restorative justice—justified a community-based sentence rather than incarceration.
