England, Jonathan's girls, Leah, Hannah and Nicola, to live with Mommy's lesbian lover

2005-03-31  Father distraught after losing daughters;   "A social worker was brought to their school Thursday to meet with students and teachers struggling to cope with their departure, added Todd Lozon of the St. Clair Catholic District School Board. The girls twice defied a court order to go with their mother last month. They made it clear they wanted to stay in Canada with their father.  ..  “The place that the children want to be is in Canada,” Mr. England maintained Thursday.   ...  "They are Canadians.”  ..  Mr. England and his daughters had been living in the United Kingdom for a year when they returned to Canada in September for a 10-day visit with Mr. England's ailing mother. But that visit turned permanent when he learned his wife had left him for a woman."

Girls old enough to speak for themselves, Chatham dad says, 2005

If Leah England was living with her sisters in Michigan instead of Chatham, the 10-year-old's heartbreaking legal troubles could already be over.  A Chatham court didn't consider Leah, Hannah, 7, or Nicola, 5, old enough to express their wishes -- which are to stay in Canada -- in the transatlantic tug-of-war brewing between their estranged parents.  But in a recent similar case, a Michigan court not only heard, but heeded, the wishes of an eight-year-old girl it deemed "sufficiently intelligent and mature" to offer her own views.

"It just adds credence to how I've been acting -- which is in the interest of the children and their stated wishes,? said Jonathan England, the girls' father.

"The kids are old enough to speak for themselves, and there's (another country) that has agreed with that."

Leah and her sisters are lifelong Ontario residents except for one year in Britain, 2003-04, which is when their parents split up <when Mom took up with a Lesbian lover>.

CHATHAM -- The England sisters walked into a children's services building here with their father yesterday afternoon, sad and sobbing. When they exited through a back door with their mother three hours later, they were quiet and subdued.  And with that, the heartbreaking international legal saga that's swirled for months around Leah, Hannah and Nicola England ended, their father obeying a judge's order and handing the girls over to his estranged wife, who will take them back to Britain for the custody fight.

"Daddy, daddy," Hannah, 7, sobbed as Jonathan England led his girls into Chatham's Integrated Children's Services building, where Marla England waited.  "I want my daddy."

Shortly before 5:30 p.m. Marla England and her parents -- David and Roberta Barrett of Niagara Falls -- emerged with the girls, who were calm, in stark contrast to two previous unsuccessful exchange attempts.  Marla England wouldn't comment on her plans for her daughters. Jonathan England and his relatives, who fought hard to keep his daughters here, had already left by then.   ..  David Barrett drove off, effectively ending an emotional day that started with Justice Lucy Glenn ruling the girls leave Canada almost immediately. ...  Jonathan and Marla England, BOTH CANADIANS, moved to Britain in September 2003 with their three Canadian daughters.  ONE YEAR later, while Jonathan England and the girls were visiting ONTARIO, their mother moved in with her British lesbian lover.  England and the girls stayed here -- which, Glenn ruled, broke the international Hague Convention.  See Tort Claims for Enticement & Seduction

Because the marriage dissolved in Britain <HAH!>, the girls -- Leah, 10, Hannah and five-year-old Nicola -- must return there for the parental custody fight, she ruled.  In a last-ditch effort yesterday to keep the children in Canada, Jonathan England's lawyer pointed to a report by a clinical psychologist who concluded the girls would "be seriously, psychologically harmed" if forced to go to Britain.  Glenn heard Leah and Hannah had threatened suicide if they are forced to return.  The judge wasn't swayed from her decision.   The fact remains the children were "unilaterally and unlawfully retained in Canada by their father," she said.  The judge said Jonathan England was given the opportunity to return his children to the United Kingdom himself, but didn't.   "I am, of course, very concerned about the mental health of the children," Glenn said, adding the ordeal may have been easier on the girls if their father had co-operated from the beginning.   "The children have said all along that they don't wish to return. . . there were no serious reasons given to satisfy the court," she said.

Thirty minutes before England took his daughters to the designated drop-off site on Grand Avenue, his quaint Chatham bungalow was filled with laughter.   Leah and Hannah skipped through the house and lay on the backyard grass with their cousin, talking quietly.   Their bags -- which sat half-unpacked in the hallway for weeks -- were stuffed with their belongings again. Nicola, the youngest, seemed unaware of what was unfolding.  "Look at how clean my room is," she cheerfully told a visitor.   ..  The girls had been unaware of yesterday's court date until their father arrived at to Georges P. Vanier elementary school unannounced.  "As soon as we showed up at the school, they knew. They just started bawling," family friend Sean Moore said.  ...

"It just seems incomprehensible."

Jonathan England, three girls - Google Search