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A judge says he banned the broadcast of a videotape showing kidnapped six-year-old Jayden Headley because it would play into the hands of the alleged abductor, the boy's grandfather Dick Headley.
In a written decision handed to the Waikato Times newspaper, Judge Graham Lang said screening the tape, sent to TVNZ on November 9, would likely result in Headley sending more tapes designed to advance his own cause and discredit Jayden's father Chris Jones, who has been granted sole custody of his son.
Jayden was taken from Hamilton's central library on August 18 by a woman known as Mrs T.
Headley and Kay Skelton, Jayden's mother, have both been charged with kidnapping.
Skelton is in jail for contempt of court after refusing to tell the court where her father and son were hiding.
Headley sent several letters and a video to police, media and Prime Minister Helen Clark demanding his daughter be given full custody of the boy.
The judge had allowed TVNZ to play eight clips from the video to give the public recent photographs of Jayden to help the search.
The tape showed Jayden saying that he loved his mother's family, had been "carefully orchestrated" by Headley, Judge Lang said in his decision.
If the entire tape was screened, Headley would conclude that TVNZ was a convenient medium through which he could conduct a counter-offensive designed to repair the damage his actions had caused, the judge said.
Screening only parts of the video could incur Headley's ire rather than gain his trust. There was little or no prospect of TVNZ gaining his trust, as Headley was not interested in negotiating a mutually acceptable solution with anyone.
"As he has done throughout, he is laying down the ground rules and setting his own terms for events to occur in the future," the judge said.
He said the Family Court had been rendered largely ineffective by the actions of Skelton and her family, who had done everything within their power to excise Mr Jones completely from Jayden's life.
The case was due back in the High Court at Hamilton on Thursday.
- NZPA
