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TAURANGA - The mother of a nine-year-old girl allegedly abducted at the weekend turned up at a Family Court hearing in Tauranga this morning - but without her daughter.
Judge Hamish Neal was told the whereabouts of the girl was unknown.
However, the mother had agreed to hand her over early this afternoon at the office of the lawyer for the child, Stephen Coyle.
Mr Coyle said if that was not done, he would be seeking to have the mother held in custody until she disclosed where her daughter was.
The nine-year-old had been in the interim custody of her father following a court hearing earlier this month.
Previously she had been living in Australia with her mother for two years.
On Friday the mother allegedly left a Papamoa holiday park with the child and went into hiding.
Detective senior sergeant Greg Turner, head of the Tauranga CIB, said police investigating the domestic-related abduction had talked to the family yesterday and the mother indicated she would front up at this morning's hearing with her daughter.
Judge Neal adjourned the hearing until 2pm.
- NZPA
