KEY POINTS:
A gap in New Zealand law meant Nai Yin Xue was able to slip out of the country with his daughter Qian despite parenting and protection orders that remain in place against him.
Family lawyers yesterday told the Herald that neither the police, Customs nor the Ministry of Justice was to blame for allowing the pair to leave unnoticed despite the court orders against Xue.
A protection order preventing Xue initiating contact with his wife, An An Liu, and daughter was finalised on December 29 last year. The order allowed An An to make contact with him.
An An applied, and was given, full custody of Qian in April this year.
Yet there was nothing to stop Xue and Qian leaving New Zealand without An An's consent and the pair flew freely from Auckland Airport last Thursday.
Police have stated that alerts appear on airport computer screens warning them when a person attempts to leave the country when he or she is not supposed to.
However, Manukau family lawyer Jeremy Sutton said the only way Xue would have been stopped leaving New Zealand was if An An had applied to the courts for an order preventing the removal of Qian from the country.
If the order was granted in court, an alert would have been created through New Zealand police Interpol staff in Wellington that would have alerted Customs staff at the airport.
Mr Sutton said most lawyers advised their clients about the non-removal order. It was common for applications for non-removal orders to be made in court at the same time as protection and parenting orders were looked at.
An An's lawyer, Dilki Rajapakse, said her client did not apply for a non-removal order because she had plans to travel to China and an order preventing Qian's removal from New Zealand would also have affected her.
The complex legal issues were discussed in Parliament yesterday when National Party justice and corrections spokesman Simon Power raised the topic.
He questioned why the courts had seized Xue's passport and if it was because they feared there was a risk he could abscond? Xue was seen getting the passport and a sword back from Henderson police station hours before leaving the country last week.
"What good is the system if he's able to wander into a police station with his daughter and get it back?" Mr Power asked.
He said the issue highlighted a trend that needed attention and referred to two other high-profile custody disputes involving New Zealand children Jayden Headley and Caitlin Jelicich.
Social Services Minister Steve Maharey said the Ministry of Social Development was working to find out what had occurred in Xue's case.
"The member has raised an issue which is a fair one and we need to make sure that we isolate the problems and we make sure that they are closed."
Police say the passport and sword were being held as exhibits in a case against Xue that was later dropped because An An refused to give evidence.
At a press conference yesterday, Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope said that to stop people being able to leave the country, someone from within the family in question would need to apply for a non-removal order.
Mr Pope said no such order existed in regard to Xue.
Court Orders
* September 29, 2006: A temporary protection order preventing Nai Yin Xue from contacting his wife An An Liu and their child, Qian, in the Waitakere Family Court.
* An interim parenting order was also put in place, giving An An custody or "day-to-day" care of Qian.
* December 29, 2006: The temporary protection order automatically became final after three months.
* March 22, 2007: An An's lawyer, Dilki Rajapakse, emailed Waitakere Family Court asking that an interim parenting order be made permanent to give An An custody because Xue had not defended it.
* April 13, 2007: A final parenting order was made in favour of An An, giving her full custody of Qian.
