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(AP) Court rejects Australian's appeal for custody of child in US

Friday, May 9, 2008
By: The Associated Press
ATLANTA

A federal appeals court has upheld the denial of an Australian's request that his 2-year-old be returned to him by the mother, who left Australia with the baby boy to live in the United States.

Gareth Alexander Baran of Altona, Victoria, asked a U.S. District Court to force Susan Elizabeth Beaty to return the boy, Samuel, under the International Child Abduction Remedies Act of 1988. Beaty lives in Daphne, Alabama.

Beaty conceded that she wrongfully removed her son from Australia in August 2006, when the child was 6 months old. But she argued that he would face a "grave risk of harm" if he returned.

"The district court was presented with evidence that Baran has been violent in the presence of his son, has made threats to the child's safety, and due to injury and alcohol abuse is unable to care properly for himself or his child," the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an opinion filed Friday.

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