My wife has abducted my children while living in Portugal

Hi,

My name is Kris, I am looking for a some help with my situation and advise it there is anyone out there that can advise/assist  

My wife abducted my children (2 & nearly 5 at the time) just after we moved to Portugal and went on the run whilst I was out of the house. She stole our life savings of £140,000+ and I now know she moved in with a Portuguese man right after leaving. She cut communication with me and I had no way of knowing where my children were.  With nowhere else to turn I got a flight back to the UK and stayed with family, who were all distraught and in complete disbelief. 

This happened in November 2022, I took legal counsel in the UK as without my earnings based visa, my dependents (wife and children) should no longer have granted access to Portugal so should have been deported. This did not go to plan as the judge threw it out of court based, upon the consent I had given to us living there (as a family) It was then I realised that she had planned the ‘escape’ as she had just needed my consent to get them all to Portugal and then I was no longer needed. Hence the discard at the first opportunity.

I then took it upon myself to travel to Portugal to instruct a lawyer and to find them. Finally after 6 months of searching (quite literally driving from town to town asking if anyone had seen them) and with help of a private investigator, I found them, got their address and proceeded to go through the court system in Portugal. 

My wife then didn’t turn up to court and the court granted me every other weekend access, to which she refused. It then became apparent that my power as a father held no weight in Portugal as when I went to the police, court order in hand, they wouldn’t take the children from her as she wouldn’t allow it. I was in a situation where her denying my access to the children was illegal yet no one was reinforcing it. I was desperate. I had now missed out on so much time with my daughters. I also worried non stop about them being with in a foreign country with a man I knew nothing about and what they were being told if they asked ‘where is daddy?’

I couldn’t understand why this was happening and couldn’t comprehend how to get them back to my care legally without traumatising them. 

Eventually it went back to court and I was granted supervised visitation so that a social worker could get an idea of my bond with the children and when I finally saw them for an hour in a contact centre it was one of the best moments of my life but also one of the worst. My girls were alive and safe, but they were clearly traumatised and withdrawn. This broke me as the last time I saw them they were full of life and love and now they could barely force a smile, it’s like they had forgotten who I was and didn’t trust me. I had weekly visitation June 2023 and the bond grew and the girls were happy and excited to see me and had started looking forward to the following visit. Then it all changed, I believe my wife had seen the bond between me and the girls and this didn’t fit her narrative of her new life, she wanted me gone and forgotten. She refused the visits and then came a cascade of unbelievable allegations about me. Of course the court had to investigate which I understood but equally the social workers and legal counsel all were suspicious as these allegations as they were out of the blue. It was a delay tactic, and it worked. Nothing in Portugal is timely and it seemed that no one took this seriously enough. It went on like this for months. I would go to Portugal and she wouldn’t turn up. My last successful visit was December 2023 and the girls were so happy with me. Then over the Xmas period all visit stopped as my ex mother in law stayed with them. My next appointment was for Jan 2024 and the girls refused to see me and told the social worker ‘daddy is going to get me’ in that month of no visits my children had been subjected to such brain washing that they believed I would hurt them. I am reaching out to you now as I have put everything I can to right this so I can get custody of my children. I have social workers, teachers, my wife’s own family members and close friends and family acting as witnesses in trial later this month. These people all want the children safe and back in the UK. I believe the trial will be successful and the judge will grant me access, however I believe if she if granted split custody she will run again. Potentially Spain. 

Any help here would be much appreciated 

Thanks for reading 

Kris Iona