Dad's Custody Battle Hits "Brick Wall"

(CBS) It's been more than two years since 5-year-old Liam McCarty was taken from his home in New York, and brought illegally to Rome by his mother.

Now 8, Liam is not living with either of his parents, but rather at an orphanage facility run by Italian Social Services.

That's because in 2007, Manuela Antonelli, Liam's mother, ignored an American court order and illegally kidnapped her son.

Antonelli, now a fugitive wanted by the FBI, brought him to Italy where they lived together until an Italian court order deemed her mentally unfit to parent.

Ernie Allen, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Liam's case is has become complicated - but shouldn't be.

He said, "The reality is that what these courts need to look at is where was the primary residence? Who has legal custody? And, why is this child in an orphanage in Italy instead rather than being with his father in the United States?"

Visit link for full story......

www.cbsnews.com...


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8ce60c77803f.jpg[/atsimg]

This is a picture of Liam and his dad before he was taken away by his mother and his life changed forever.

This is such a sad story and it is completely unacceptable the way that this child is being treated. Can you imagine what this poor little boy is going through to be ripped away from a loving father by a mentally incompetent mother, brought to another country to subsequently taken away from the mother and placed in an orphanage, he must be so traumatized and probably has irreversable emotional damage from this.

He was only five years old when this happened to him, he was no where near old enough to understand what happened to him. Why would they place him in an orphanage when he has a father that is very much alive and loves and wants him, Liam is not an orphan and should not be in an orphanage.

To make matters worse it seems that much of Italy shuts down for the month of August and his father has no idea where Liam is right now.

The Italian government should be ashamed of their actions in regards to Liam, and should immediately return him to his father and extradite his mother so that she can face charges of kidnapping.

Liam's dad is hoping that if this case receives a lot of publicity it will help him to get his his son out of an orphanage and back home where he belongs. So let's try to help this case get some much needed attention and flag this thread so other's will take notice.

www.abcnews.go.com...

www.saveliam.org...

cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com...


Edit to fix abcnews link, i inadvertantly linked to the second page.


[edit on 8/12/2009 by chise61]

This is a story that could use some publicity!

Parenting can be tricky, especially during a divorce, and shared custody. The mom made a big mistake by taking Liam to Italy...

Lets hope someone can come to the aid of the father!

S&F!




[edit on 12-8-2009 by burntheships]

Remember all the hoopla when Elian Gonzales was held up by the press as a victim of whatever and insisted he be returned to Cuba...where is the press with this one...it seems that the liberal mainstream media is all over things when it fits their agenda, but here is a very similar case, but they say nothing. Can't show the US population what really happens when a european socialist government REALLY gets involved in parenting a child.

reply to post by burntheships


Yes i'm hoping that we can get him some much needed attention here.

It's a shame that the children are always the ones to suffer in these cases.

I have never seen one like this though where the child is put into an orphanage, poor baby what he must be going through, and for two long years already

reply to post by glevel


You know that's the first thing that came to my mind when i saw this story was the Elian Gonzalez case and how much attention it got. But nothing for this poor little boy that has been placed in an orphanage.

He needs to contact the U.S. State Department for assistance.

International Child Custody laws is something they deal with on a daily basis. Did your ex kidnap your child and flee to a Non-Extradition Treaty country? Not a problem. The U.S. State Department can still help!

Three or four years back, a father lost physical custodial rights to his child to an abusive mother. He did the only thing he could think of...he took his child and fled to Russia and got a job working for the Russian Business Network as a computer programmer. The mother appealed through the legal process time and time again to the Russian government to no avail...so she went to the U.S. State Department. After the U.S. State Department couldn't negotiate an arrangement with the Russian government either, they sent in a detachment of Marines "unofficially" to escort the mother and assist her in physically kidnapping her child back from Russian soil!

There are crimes that some countries do not consider criminal and will not assist foreigners to uphold foreign laws that their sovereignty does not recognize. Oftentimes the United States Child Custody Laws are one of those areas that aren't universally honored internationally, even by countries that are under Extradition Treaty. Sometimes, it helps having the U.S. government go to bat for you to clear the foreign red-tape...after all, who in the world is better at circumnavigating endless bureaucracies and redundant laws than our own government?

reply to post by chise61


Is is sad...yet it does happen even hear in The United States!

Parents need to put the childrens needs first...when they use the children as tools, they put the childs safety at risk!

I can not see how Itlay has a right to keep the child there, seems to my logic if the child is an American citizen he should be allowed to return to his country!

reply to post by fraterormus

......after all, who in the world is better at circumnavigating endless bureaucracies and redundant laws than our own government?

This is so true. He says that our goverment can't do anything about it, but like you said maybe he just hasn't contacted the right department.

What he needs is a lot of publicity and public outcry to help him get his son back.

reply to post by burntheships


Apparently it's because he has dual citizenship, and also the fact that he was born in Italy.

Apparantly they are more concerned with their "ownership" of Liam than they are with his welfare.

reply to post by chise61


Oh...that explains it...dual citizenship. I mssed that part!
Good advice from post by fraterormus !

To add...although I still can not see how Italy supercedes his U.S. citizenship!



[edit on 12-8-2009 by burntheships]

I have been through this to a degree, when my ex and I split she chose to run with kids to make sure she got custody... down my finances temporarily so by time it got to courts, months the standard, "well the child is settled now" thing would allow her to stay where she chose and rob me my 50% time so she could collect cash etc, etc...

and

That could be defensible from the Woman's POV

BUT

They never stop to think about the "What IF" What idf something happens to ME, what then happens to the kids...

90% of the time luck is on their side as was my case and now all is Fine, I get my 1/3 of the month etc... we even get along

BUT

IF

Some thing would have gone wrong my kids would have been screwed psychologically maybe for life...

This needs to be completely illegal and taken as seriously as any other kidnapping be it the Father or the Mother that pulls it...

Your gone more than a couple of weeks without other parents permission you go to Jail, end of story... extradited if you leave the country immediately.

Originally posted by chise61
What he needs is a lot of publicity and public outcry to help him get his son back.

...i wont support this issue one way or the other until verifiable court documents are posted on the internet that detail (1) why the father was the primary custodial parent (2) the mother's reasons for not being satisfied with the custodial situation (3) the reasons why the italian courts deemed her mentally incompetant, (4) her legal representative's counter arguement and (5) the opinions that preceeded the italian court's decision to put the boy in an orphanage, rather than release him to his father...

...the father may be a super guy and deeply devoted parent but i'm not going to take his word for it... the fbi backing him up doesnt prove he's right either cuz the fbi has been guilty of supporting ugly things before... in the best interest of the child, rather than sounding a battle cry to support the father, people should be demanding proof of the father's allegations as well as closely examining his behavior...

reply to post by mopusvindictus


Yes i know from personal experience how hard it can be for a man to be granted parental rights to his own children in this country. And there are those women that use the children as pawns in a sick game without giving a thought as to what's in the best interest of the children.


I just can't understand why Italy is refusing to give Liam back to his father except for their claim of "ownership" over him.

Nor can i understand how little Elian Gonzalez received so much media attention and Liam has been in an orphanage and this is the first that we're hearing about it.

Let's hope that we can get him some much needed attention here.

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


I can understand your point of view, do you by any chance know how i would go about obtaining verifiable court records from Italy ?

I'm not sure, but i don't think that the court records would be open for public inspection since it's family court and Liam is a minor, but i'm not a laywer so i don't know.

I know it's not verifiable by your standards, but the article states that one of the problems is this....

The case is complicated by the fact that Liam was born in Italy and has dual citizenship there and in the U.S., and McCarty did not have formal final custody of Liam until after Manuela fled to Italy with him.

www.abcnews.go.com...

And that is because of this....

That's because in 2007, Manuela Antonelli, Liam's mother, ignored an American court order and illegally kidnapped her son.

Michael McCarty, Liam's father, was awarded primary custody by an American court after Antonelli fled the country.

www.cbsnews.com...

They were in the middle of a custody battle when the mother took Liam, and since she violated a court order the father was awarded custody.


There are currently three court cases in Italy concerning Liam.....

There are three cases pending related to Liam, dealing with both custody and custodial rights: one in Rome's juvenile court, one in the appellate court and one in the Supreme Court. Currently they are all in adjournment with no dates set for the next hearing.

www.abcnews.go.com...

I haven't seen any mention of Liam's mother being involved in any of these proceedings. The Italian goverment has taken custody away from his mother.

This poor guy needs a little justice. His wife royally screwed him and left America to lead another life. The kid should be here with his real father end of story. This stepdad of his has no right to keep him even if Liam wants to stay in Italy.

[edit on 10-04-08 by Beach Bum]

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


This is also not an isolated case. there are many other cases where one parent flees to thier native country with the child during or after a custody battle.

While David Goldman's crusade to get his son back has topped headlines recently, his case is one of more than 60 cases of child abduction in Brazil and nearly 2,000 around the world.

While Brazilian courts deliberate the constitutionality of returning kidnapped U.S. boy Sean Goldman to his father David, one U.S. congressman is floating the idea of imposing harsh trade restrictions on Brazil until the boy is back in his father's custody.

www.abcnews.go.com...


Here's a video of an interview with another father (David Goldman) of a child that was taken out of the country.
www.abcnews.go.com...

This has become an all too common practice of fleeing the country with a child to avoid custody battles.



www.interpol.com...

www.missingkids.com... ang=en_US

[edit on 8/12/2009 by chise61]

reply to post by Beach Bum


I'm sorry your confusion is my fault, i inadvertantly linked the second page instead of the first for the abc story. The second page also talks about the Goldman case.

Liam was taken to Italy where he was taken away from his mother and placed in an orphanage.

reply to post by chise61


Oh it's not hard...

You Just need to PAY

If your a contributor you can have as many kids as you want

What this system really is about is Eugenics...

People are selfish these women aren't evil, they gave birth and given the opportunity to get away with it, they will mostly and the gov knows this...

If your poor and you have a kid or two and mom leaves your effectively entered into a Eugenics program...

In essence you now pay 2 rents while trying to maintain a social life... i.e. meet another woman, most men can't pull it off, so they ergo have no more kids...

population control

I can beat that system, so I don't concern myself with it much....

but I still lost a prime year or two... it's a hard grief at first emotionally as well.. hard to just pick up... and move on

That's what they want

and

That's why I don't blame her... But will have many more children, screw with their plans...

Even if I go through it 5 times... Success in life to me is connected to passing on my genes, people are selfish and don't take it seriously but I like me and intend to see many, many generations come of me and they wont thwart that.

They care nothing for children the system as it is, is about population control..

Custody... they totally give you want you want, mostly schools a factor in time they have to be in one spot for that...

But beyond that they will never deny you if you behave in a non criminal manner and pay that loot

But the "useless eater" crowd as they refer to poor people... men in particular...

all i'll say is avoid the swine flu vaccine, very easy if you have even one friend is a doctor... i'd guesstimate 20% of the male population either sterile or homosexual when done with childhood...

They don't want kids around, it's all Eugenics.

reply to post by mopusvindictus


Yes being able to pay has a lot to do with it.

Unfortunately the system is set up to believe that since the woman gives birth that automatically makes her the better parent. However that is not always the case, there are plenty of women out there that have no business being a parent. But unfortunately it is next to impossible to get the courts to see that in some cases the father is more nuturing, and the better parent, and would be the wisest choice for custodial parent.

I sent an email to the saveliam website, it looked like the emails go to the attorney, inviting Liam's father to join this conversation and answer any questions that members may have about this case.

I don't know if he'll receive the invitation, or will decide to join in, but hey i can try right.