Just going down the shops...

[Gob]

A mother-of-six who flew to Australia for six weeks after telling her son she was going to the supermarket has been given a suspended jail sentence.

The Birmingham woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, left her 14-year-old son in charge when she went to stay with a boyfriend on 2 January.

The teenager called his grandparents, who alerted authorities.

She pleaded guilty to six counts of wilful abandonment at Birmingham Crown Court.

Sentencing her to a six month prison sentence, suspended for two years, Judge Murray Creed said it was "plainly a serious matter".

The court heard the woman's flight was paid for by a man she met online.

On the day of her disappearance the woman, who is now pregnant with her seventh child, left the house at 17:00 GMT. Her son called his grandparents, who do not live in Birmingham, four hours later. They alerted police and social services, who arrived at the house at 01:00 the following day.

The youngest of the children left at home was three years old.

The mother, a single parent, ignored messages from her parents and the police, deactivated her social media accounts and refused to fly home until her scheduled return six weeks later, the court heard.

She was arrested when she got back in February.

[Lord Jim]

refused to fly home until her scheduled return six weeks later

Why didn't the Birmingham cops contact the Australian authorities to issue an arrest warrant for her, so they could have gotten this unfeeling bitch back home to face justice before she completed her vacation?

[Gob]

Probably against her 'uman rights.

[BoSoxGal]

A case like that wouldn't reach priority status to expedite extradition. Thus, there would be no point in trying because the standard extradition process would take longer than her return date. She's not committing a crime in Australia (presumably) so they can't pick her up on a warrant and make her sit jail there without issuance of an extradition warrant.

Easier all around to meet her at the airport, as they might have done, or pick her up once returned home.

[Lord Jim]

If they had issued the extradition warrant, at least she could have spent the six weeks sitting in a jail cell rather than quaffing frozen cocktails lying on a beach...(or however she was spending her "holiday"... ) There was also no guarantee that she would return when she said she would.

Or she might have decided that rather than sit in the cell, that she would not fight extradition and come back to face the music instead...(where she'll probably get a slap on the wrist...)

[Gob]

Good god no!!

Slap on the wrist? How barbaric.

She would be given an increase in her dole, a free holiday to Aus every year, and extra social work support to look after her kids.

That'll learn her!!

ETA: Don't believe me?

One teenage prisoner was sent on a number of overseas holidays, including a safari, costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds.

He was later jailed for robbery.

Social workers and probation officers defended the controversial trips, saying this system was better placed to challenge certain teenagers' offending behaviour, rather than just locking them away with older and more criminally-minded offenders.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/137749.stm

[BoSoxGal]

The point I was getting at is that it's usually more than 6 weeks to get an interstate warrant for extradition issued, so I'm assuming it takes that long, or longer, to get an international one issued. She's isn't exactly an international terrorist, they wouldn't expedite this, I doubt.