Kidnap mother wins her appeal
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A mother jailed with her husband for abducting their two children from foster parents and fleeing to France yesterday won her appeal against sentence.
Denise Holland, 37, who suffers from manic depression, was imprisoned for 12 months at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, three weeks ago. A public outcry followed and Mrs Holland, a pharmacist, was granted leave to appeal by a senior judge, but refused bail.
Yesterday three Court of Appeal judges ruled that it would be wrong to detain Mrs Holland any further in prison, given that her mental illness had resurfaced since incarceration.
But as the court ruled that Mrs Holland's sentence be reduced to two years' probation, on the condition that she receive treatment, her husband's appeal against an 18-month jail sentence was dismissed.
The judges ruled that she had been a "passive co-operator" in the abduction of her son Kieran, eight, and daughter Nicola, seven, but that her husband, Graeme, a 32-year-old computer programmer, had been the principal planner in the carefully organised operation. A 12-month sentence on Jane Willoughby, 41, who helped the couple kidnap their children, was reduced to six months.
Lord Justice Hirst, sitting with Mr Justice Judge and Mrs Justice Steel, said that the couple's children had become "pawns" in their battle with social workers who deserved criticism for their treatment of the case. At the couple's trial the judge accepted that they had a "legitimate grievance" against social services in the handling of the case. But Lord Justice Hirst said the lengthy and detailed planning involved in the abduction indicated there had been no sudden "snap of self-control" and made the crime more serious.
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