Fugitive mother arrested in Mangere

Prostitute Olena Reznikova was arrested yesterday and is scheduled to be deported to Ukraine without her two children.

Reznikova has been in Family Court proceedings with Donald Copeland, father of her 3-year-old son, Leon.

A High Court judge last week issued an arrest warrant against her for failing to hand Leon over to Child, Youth and Family.

Investigate magazine, which features the Reznikova case in its latest issue, said on its website late last night that police swooped on her Mangere home, serving not just the arrest warrant but also papers requiring her immediate deportation. Leon and his older brother were taken into CYF care.

A legal source said that if the deportation order is upheld, Reznikova will not be allowed back into NZ and will have to abandon the custody fight.