Court axes $32,000 in back child support for mom who abducted her daughter

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KELOWNA, B.C. – The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled a woman who abducted her daughter and fled to Italy is not entitled to more than $32,000 in back child support from her former husband.

Sibylla Hughes took her two-year-old daughter, Livia, to Italy before a July 17, 2009 visit with the father, Calum Hughes of Kelowna, B.C.

She was ordered by the court to return the girl to Vancouver and surrender the child's passport but didn't, and a court found her in contempt and now the woman faces a criminal charge.

Calum Hughes then stopped paying child support for the now-six-year-old girl, believing he had waited long enough for Livia to be returned to Canada.

He then applied to the court to cancel his arrears, but the mother responded, asking the court to calculate how much child support she was owed and to enforce any payment order.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan sided with the father, wiping out the past support payments, saying the man's job as a custodial parent has been prevented for three years.

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