The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been involved in family court proceedings with the mother of their daughter since 2024, after the child was taken from her mother’s care.
A father who is believed to have been involved in the “abduction” of his young daughter at gunpoint abroad and allegedly threatened to kill a High Court judge has been jailed for the civil offence of contempt of court.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been involved in family court proceedings with the mother of their daughter since 2024, after the child was taken from her mother’s care.
Barristers for the mother told a hearing on Wednesday that the then-nine-year-old had been abducted from her at an airport in Iran by one of the father’s relatives at gunpoint in January last year, and that the mother and daughter had not had contact since.
The father has since failed to comply with the orders of several judges in the UK to return the child, with the child’s mother asking a judge to send him to prison for contempt of court.
The father, who was unrepresented, was in the building but refused to enter the courtroom in London or give any evidence in his defence.
The court was told that he had thrown items around and threatened to kill people, including a judge, at previous hearings, with several security guards in court on Wednesday.
At the hearing, Mrs Justice Lieven ruled the father had breached the orders and said she was in “no doubt” that he should be sent to prison immediately, adding that it was “the only hope” of securing the child’s return.
She said: “A custodial sentence is required in order to show the court’s displeasure about what has been a completely deliberate series of breaches of court orders.”
She continued: “The father has removed a nine-year-old child by force. I can only assume that the father was involved in the decision to remove (her).
“That is an act of extreme cruelty, both to (the child) and to her mother.”
The judge added that the father had shown “complete contempt for the court and its processes” and “labours under the belief that he can set the terms” of the child’s return to her mother.
She also said that the father was believed to have arrived in the UK illegally and was later granted asylum.
The mother and their daughter then joined him in the UK legally in 2023.
In written submissions for the hearing, Ruth Kirby KC, for the mother, said that the mother and daughter travelled to Iran in January 2024 and a relative of the father took the child at gunpoint at an airport.
Ms Kirby said the court had ordered the father to return the child on four occasions, and twice told him to set up video contact, but neither had happened.
She said: “Past such contempts have gone unpunished, and this may have led the defendant to believe that he can behave as he wishes.
“This has included throwing the heavy-based microphones hard against counsel’s bench, shouting, using threatening and intimidating body language and threatening to kill various people, including Mrs Justice Henke, at the September hearing.”
Ms Kirby said that she had previously had to be escorted from the court because of concerns for her safety and that the father’s “intimidation” had “an adverse effect” on her ability to do her job.
She continued: “This is a litigant who has wilfully and intentionally decided to repeatedly breach this court’s orders.
“He should be committed to prison for those breaches.”
At the hearing, which the mother attended via video link, Ms Kirby said that the child “had never been apart from her mother” before she was taken and described the case as “disgusting”.
