Dust, the judge was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. There was an international treaty that needs to be honoured and the mother was in breach of an Italian court order. Regardless of whether the girls would be better off with their mother or not the judge had an international responsibility......but he also had a responsiblity to be politcally correct. Can you imagine the public out cry if he had come out and said that even though the girls will be devastated by the decision our overriding responsibilty is to an international treaty....and in reality he may be right but an emotional public may not see it that way. I think the judge's comments were meant as a hose down for a potential powder keg.
Family law can be a real heart breaker. Often consideration is not given to individual cases but rather cases can be decided with precidents and blanket responses. Unless the father could be proved to be a physical or emotional danger to the children the mother never had a hope.
