Mother wins children`s custody


	Monica Grecula, with Berenger and Emilie in Valletta after yesterday`s ruling which effectivly confirmed the return of the children to the mother.

The Civil Court yesterday confirmed a US court ruling granting the mother of two abducted American children full custody and authorised her departure from Malta with them.

Mr Justice Ray Pace ruled that Ronald Grecula, 65, had uprooted his children from familiar surroundings capriciously and deprived them of their mother.

The judge gave the ruling in a writ filed by Monique Grecula, the mother of Berenger, 10, and Emilie, three.

Mrs Grecula, 32, said she lived in Pennsylvania and her children had lived with her until November 2000 when Mr Grecula abducted them and left the country.

The US courts had granted them shared custody a month earlier, ruling, however, that the primary physical custody was to be entrusted to the mother.

Mr Grecula disappeared with the children on November 26, 2000. A year later, the American courts had altered the custody ruling and had granted the mother exclusive custody.

In the writ filed before the local courts, Mrs Grecula claimed that her husband had used both physical and psychological violence on her and the children.

She called on the court to confirm the ruling of the Pennsylvania court awarding her exclusive custody and to authorise her to return to the US with her children. She also requested the court to stop her husband from leaving the country with the children.

Mr Justice Pace yesterday referred to the US courts' judgments which described the father's conduct as outrageous and mentioned that he had subjected the children to corporeal punishment.

The courts had concluded by awarding both parents shared legal custody, providing that primary physical custody was to be vested in the mother.

Mr Grecula pleaded that the US judgments had been delivered against him without giving him the opportunity to be heard.

The Civil Court dismissed the plea as unfounded.

Mr Justice Pace noted that the husband had verbally agreed with his wife to take the children with him for Thanksgiving weekend in order to attend a wedding.

He was meant to return the children to her on November 26, 2000. But he absconded with them, arriving in Malta in January 2001.

The American courts had granted full rights of custody to the wife on November 6, 2001.

Mr Justice Pace added that it was only after a ruling issued by the Civil Court on February 27 that Mrs Grecula was able to reunite with her children.

On that day, Mr Grecula had been arrested by the police in Malta on charges that he was on the island without the necessary permits.

The court added that it was contrary to the interests of the children to deprive them of their mother from November 2000 until February of this year.

The children, the court said, had not been able to communicate with their mother since their arrival in Malta in January 2001.

Despite the fact that the children were US citizens, they had been forcibly removed from their country by their father and eventually brought to Malta.

The children were forced to lose contact with their US environment, their friends and family, their lifestyle and education.

Mr Grecula had not denied these facts, the court noted, and he had shown no signs of remorse for the trauma to which he had subjected the children.

Mr Grecula's testimony, the court said, was dominated by the contempt he felt for his wife and for her partner and it clearly resulted that he could not accept the fact that his marriage to Mrs Grecula had broken down and that the care and custody of the children was primarily entrusted to the wife.

The court added that the social worker who had examined the children had found that they were deprived of their mother.

Mr Justice Pace declared that the courts were bound to give all such orders as were required in the best interests of the children.

Local and foreign court judgments had declared that this was the sole criterion in decisions of care and custody of minor children.

Mr Grecula had not proven any of his allegations against his wife.

On the other hand, although Mr Grecula had made a number of allegations about his qualifications as a consultant in advanced engines and power systems, no evidence of this was forthcoming.

Neither had any evidence been produced to show that any of the projects mentioned by him had in fact materialised.

No documents were exhibited to show that he had sufficient means to maintain himself in Malta. Nor had Mr Grecula wished to reveal the identity of the company to which he claimed to be accredited as a consultant.

The court did not find any evidence to show that Mr Grecula had any ties to Malta, save for friends and contacts on a professional level.

The husband did not have Maltese citizenship. He was a US citizen as were his children. His status in Malta was of itself precarious and in these circumstances it was not advisable to entrust him with the care and custody of his children.

The court concluded that the husband's action in connection with his children was very damaging for he had uprooted them from their customary surroundings and taken them to a completely alien environment in a capricious manner.

The father had also done all that was possible to influence the children against their mother and had cut off all contact with her.

The court therefore upheld the wife's writ of summons and entrusted her with the care and custody of the minor children.

The wife was authorised to return to the US with the children and the court confirmed the judgment of the US court whereby the care and custody of the minor children was entrusted to the mother.

Dr Aron Mifsud Bonnici was counsel to Mrs Grecula.

Dr Joseph R. Pace was counsel to Mr Grecula.