KEY POINTS:
The young girl at the centre of a custody tug-of-war which saw her abducted four days ago was returned this afternoon to the care of her father.
A Family Court hearing in Tauranga this morning was adjourned until 2pm when the mother turned up without the nine-year-old and refused to reveal her whereabouts.
The woman had faced being placed in custody if she did not come through on her agreement to deliver the daughter to a legal office at 1.30pm.
But the lawyer for the child, Stephen Coyle, told Family Court Judge Hamish Neal that he was "pleased to say" the girl had been brought to the office.
The mother has not been charged by police, who spent a busy few days trying to trace her when the girl was not returned after an access visit. The pair left a Papamoa holiday park and went into hiding last Friday.
Since early this month, the nine-year-old has been in the interim custody of her father after having lived with her mother in Australia for two years. Previously, she had travelled across the Tasman by herself for visits to her father.
Mr Coyle said this afternoon that the youngster was "very subdued" and "somewhat confused about what is happening".
Although delighted to see her father and grandparents, she was sad to leave her mother and wanted the custody issue sorted out as soon as possible.
The child wanted to go back to her school in Australia, rather than start a new one in a different country, but found it "too hard" to say where and with whom she wanted to live, the lawyer said.
"She talks very glowingly of her life in both households."
He said the girl "did not know" if she felt safe in her mother's care.
The matter had come to a crisis because of worries about the mother's lifestyle, behaviour and activities, Judge Neal said.
The woman would be preparing affidavits in her own defence.
Meanwhile, he was concerned at how long the matter would drag on without final resolution.
For the child's sake, she should have contact with her mother but given the recent history that needed to be under agreed supervision.
Judge Neal ruled that the interim order granting custody to the father should continue, pending further investigations and the testing in court of evidence from both sides.
A preliminary hearing was set down for February 19.
The young girl's abduction and appeals by police for public help in locating her came hard on the heels of the widely published Jayden Headley saga.
The six-year-old was returned to his father's care last week after being snatched five months earlier.
The boy's mother, Kay Skelton, and his maternal grandfather, Dick Headley, have been charged with kidnapping.
Mrs Skelton spent time in jail for allegedly refusing to reveal where her father and son were hiding.
- NZPA
