Derry Mother Loses Abduction Case.

By Georgina Brennan

A DERRY woman caught up in a child abduction case in Florida has lost her appeal for custody of her son. Cara Gunn, 27, lost custody of 5-year-old Dylan after a brutal court battle with her ex-husband, Robert Gunn.

Legal proceedings were first started by Robert, a former U.S. Marine, after their marriage broke down and Cara took Dylan to Derry in August 2002. Dylan was born in Northern Ireland in 1998. 

Gunn took Dylan and her 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship and flew back to her native country. She had been living illegally in the U.S. and leaving meant a world of legal problems. 

“As far as the legal complications, yeah, I feel it was a mistake,” she said. “Probably if I would have known about the resources available to me here in the States, perhaps I wouldn’t have felt the need to leave,” she said.

But Gunn and Dylan had to return to Florida after the High Court in Belfast ruled that she had contravened the Hague Convention by taking a child away from its place of usual residence without both parents’ consent. She was ordered to return to Florida on a 90-day visa to contest the custody battle.

Gunn, who once told journalists she thought she’d return to Northern Ireland “in a coffin” if she was forced to give up custody of her son to her ex-husband, was inconsolable after the verdict was read on Thursday. 

“The whole world just fell apart. It just felt like somebody pulled the ground out from under me,” Gunn told reporters after the verdict. “I just cried.”

But instead of giving up, Gunn is determined to stay in the U.S. and appeal the decision.

“I can lie down and be a victim right now, or I can stand up and continue to fight. I’m not ready to give up my son. I just can’t do that,” she said.

But Gunn is racing against the clock – under her visa rules, she must leave the U.S. no later than this Friday, and can’t return for 10 years.

If she can’t regain custody of Dylan, her lawyer says, she wants to try to have her U.S. visa restrictions overturned, and come back to live near her son. But currently Gunn does not have an immigration attorney.

“He’s 5 years old. He loves us both. He needs us both,” she said. “Who’s gonna tickle Dylan’s feet? He’s always said Daddy can’t tickle his feet . . . I just don’t want to ever think Dylan wakes up in the middle of the night, every second he wants me.”