Emily must stay, Taipei court rules

The local mother of a four-year-old girl named Emily won her custody battle with the child's American father after the Taipei District Court ruled in her favor yesterday.

The court said it had awarded custody to the mother, Nadia Juan (阮玫芬), because the father, Cary Sartin, "did not take his parenting duties seriously enough."

Sartin, 55, did not attend the hearing.

In their ruling, the judges said they believed Sartin had failed to follow a court order to have "limited contact with the media in a bid to avoid negative repercussions for the child." Specifically, the judges said the child had accompanied Sartin to televised interviews during the court proceedings.

The court also said the father had publicly criticized Taiwan and its legal system, alleging "judicial persecution."

Sartin -- who was in Taiwan on June 5 last year when the court ruled that Emily should be temporarily placed in her mother's care pending the outcome of the custody hearing -- had instead tried to hide the child, the judges said. Then, two days before leaving the country, Sartin had tried to arrange for her to be looked after by a babysitter he had located through a detective agency, the court's ruling said.

The ruling added that Sartin had made little attempt to contact the child during the year-long court proceedings, only sending her a doll on one occasion.

The court said Sartin would have to seek Juan's approval should he want to take Emily abroad.

Sartin's lawyer, Shih Hsin (史馨), said she had informed her client of the ruling via e-mail, but that he had not yet decided whether he would appeal.

The custody battle, which had previously been waged in the US, found its way into local courts last year when Sartin came to Taiwan with a US court order empowering him to take Emily back to the US.

Juan, a former New York correspondent for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-run newspaper Central Daily News, had lost a US custody lawsuit to Sartin when she returned with Emily to Taiwan while the case was still in process.

However, immigration officials at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport prevented Sartin from taking Emily out of the country because she was not using her Taiwanese passport -- ?with which she had entered the country.

The district court subsequently ruled that Emily must remain in Taiwan until the court had completed custody hearings.

Sartin then returned to the US, where he appealed to the media, the public and senators via video messages and TV appearances in a bid to win support in his custody battle.