Custody Battle: Judge Considers Sending Child to Abusive Father in Italy

A federal judge is set to rule on whether a 6-year-old boy must be sent back to Italy to live with his father, who admitted in court to abusing the boy’s now deceased mother. The decision follows a contentious court battle in which the boy's family has alleged the boy has returned from recent visits with his father distressed and with bruises. Domestic violence experts and advocates who have followed the case say it is a window into a reality experienced by mothers around the world who flee abusive partners with their children for another country and then get accused of kidnapping under the child abduction clauses of the Hague Convention.