Captured in Cyprus! Is this Underground Railroad Stop Now Defunct?

And: Tribute to Faye Yager—1st Underground Railroad Conductor

A British mother, who escaped Family Court tyranny six years ago, has been captured in Northern Cyprus.

This is especially bad news, as the island of Cyprus has served as a welcome stop on the Underground Railroad for Mothers. Her arrest—and two others—may signal that it it is now a defunct depot.

Sarah was arrested April 7th and deported back to the UK last week. She is now languishing in a prison in Cheshire awaiting trial.

Hopefully she will be released on bail, but that is unlikely. Keeping errant women locked up serves to silence and disempower them. And it makes it harder for them to put on a decent defense against “abduction” charges.

Northern Cyprus has been one of the few places mothers could successfully escape to. A previous column went into depth about this epidemic of mothers fleeing to safety: Family Court Is Inciting an International Exodus of Mothers Seeking Safety. This article highlights the BBC documentary Mums on the Run, great investigative reporting on the epidemic of mothers going underground to protect their children.

There appears to be a deliberate media black-out of Sarah’s capture—so you know what to do Mamas! Share & give Sarah’s Story legs!

SARAH’S STORY

Sarah gave birth to Tom in 2013. She had only a short relationship with the father before getting pregnant and it does not appear they married. She left him when Tom was only 5-months-old due to his abuse.

As usual, a lengthy custody battle ensued, despite the father being a domestic abuser. Sarah fought hard to maintain custody and protect Little Tom in Family Court. Like most mothers, she had been advised to not talk about her ex’s abuse.

At some point, Tom became a victim of direct abuse. It is unclear what kind, but mothers rarely go into hiding unless it is to protect children from serious physical or sexual abuse.

In 2019, Sarah couldn’t bring herself to bring Tom to visit his father. The judge threatened she would lose custody completely if she did not. So she jumped on the underground railroad and fled to safety with her then 6-year-old son.

At some point early in her travels, she got off the train (metaphorically speaking) at the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus [TRNC] depot. That is the northeastern portion of Cyprus, which is under Turkish control. The southwestern portion is under Greek control.

Although Sarah had to give up life as she knew it in England, she was one of the lucky ones. She successfully escaped and made a decent life for her son and her in exile.

They lived happily in TRNC ever since. There is a community of mothers and ex-pats there who welcomed them. One friend spoke after Sarah’s arrest, saying how well she was doing there and how she was such a great mother.

I live in Northern Cyprus and have met Sarah working as volunteers for the Kyrenia Animal Rescue. I then met Tom who was and is still hopefully a lovely, genuine and gentle boy. A credit to his Mum. He shared classes with friends of mine's children and Sarah worked so hard to provide him with a happy, stable family and social life here.

Cyprus has been such a popular destination for fleeing mothers that there is an attorney who specializes in these cases. Mine Atli helps mothers get amnesty, protective orders, and visas.

These women are being failed in their country. They need some kind of amnesty and there needs to be a path to safety for these women and their children.

It is unclear whether Sarah applied for amnesty or was just in hiding.

THE ARREST

So all was going quite well, considering Sarah had been displaced from friends and family for six years. Tom was safe and had blossomed under Sarah’s nurturing into a wonderful, well-adjusted, happy pre-teen.

Until April 7th.

Law enforcement descended upon their place of refuge and arrested Sarah. They forcibly removed Tom from his mother’s arms. He was taken to the UK and placed into a care home. How traumatic that must be for him…

Sarah was brought to Nicosia, a main city that lies on the border—half Turkish/half Greek—and imprisoned. That prison is famous for its inhumane treatment of prisoners. She was not allowed to speak with anyone, not even an attorney.

On April 28th, Sarah was extradited back to the UK. She was imprisoned at Styal prison in Cheshire, England.

Apparently, there has not been an arraignment yet, so the official charge is not yet known. But it will undoubtedly some version of “child abduction”—a felony with a significant prison sentence if she’s found guilty.

EXTRADITION OR HAGUE?

One reason Turkey has served as a safe haven for mothers is because it is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. That means the father cannot file a “Hague case” there to get his child returned.

This treaty usually works to the benefit of abusive men, not in returning truly abducted kids as it was intended. But at least it provides a semblance of due process. There must be a hearing before the child is returned, at which the mother can employ the defense of fleeing to protect her child. But that almost never works.

A larger problem, as seen in Sarah’s case, seems to be extradition agreements between countries. Turkey can extradite a criminal to the UK if the crime is punishable by more than a year in prison. The sentence for parental abduction in the UK is up to seven years. But Sarah is not a convicted criminal. There is simply a warrant out for her arrest on abduction charges yet to be prosecuted.

It is highly unusual for TRNC to arrest and extradite mothers. They have previously had a policy of not cooperating with international law enforcement agencies in favor of women and children. And they rarely even extradite real criminals. So what’s happened?

Someone who’s lived there for decades commented that there seemed to be something “underhanded” at play in Sarah’s case.

Many criminals have managed to avoid extradition, so it really seems something more underhanded is at work here.

It may have been simple bribery or connections or powers-that-be cooperating.

Whatever the reason in Sarah’s case, it seems extradition is trumping the Hague process. It is much easier for men to get an arrest warrant and enter it into international databases than going through a long court process. And the frosting on the cake is the mother will surely be locked up for an extended period of time.

Things may be going in this direction in TRNC. Another mother was recently kicked out after not being allowed to renew her visa, and she was arrested at the border when leaving. Another mother was just arrested when attempting to enter.

So, unfortunately, the TRNC stop on the underground railroad for mothers may now be defunct. The fact that men know this is a common destination means they can hire P.I.’s to scour the island looking for their property.

That leaves countries without extradition treaties as a better bet unless the mother is sure she can remain invisible in another country. Unfortunately, most of the non-extraditing countries are weak on human and women’s rights, but they may be preferable to children being abused.

How sad is it that women have to flee and have so few options when all they want to do is protect their children. It’s a Gilead-like nightmare with no Canada to escape to…

TRIBUTE TO FAYE

The modern underground for mothers escaping Family Court has its roots in an American network begun by Faye Yager in the mid-80’s. She heard about Karen’s case, in which the molesting father was given sole custody, despite medical proof of the abuse.

The very same thing had happened to Faye over a decade earlier. After discovering their cases were not the exception but the rule, she organized a network of safe houses around the country and world and actively helped mothers navigate them. This was the first publicly known underground railroad for mothers.

Thousands of mothers contacted her. Her organization “Children of the Underground” was quite successful. Many of the children were disclosing ritual abuse, so she made a point to raise awareness about that too.

Faye was rich, beautiful, and charismatic, and she made a splash with the public. She made appearances on popular talk shows, like Oprah, Sally Jessie Raphael, and Geraldo and had no problem speaking about the prevalence of father-child sexual abuse, organized abuse, and family courts covering up sexual abuse.

Needless to say, this ticked off the Old Boys. Faye was tenaciously stalked and prosecuted for child abduction. Fortunately, the jury saw through the prosecution’s duplicity and acquitted her.

Faye on the stand

After that stressful trial, Faye operated more covertly. But to her dying day, she contends she was still helping thousands of mothers.

However, the Old Boys were not done with Faye. They recently produced a high-dollar pseudo-documentary series, which they called “Children of the Underground”. They insinuated Faye was crazy for believing the children and had influenced them to report the abuse. They peddled their narrative—that it was all just a “satanic panic”.

This film has also served to coopt the term “Children of the Underground”. Google searches now bring up the pseudo-doc instead of Faye’s brilliant work and her being portrayed as hero. (There’s a word for this kind of sabotage but can’t think of it.) So they not only discredited her, they disappeared her.

Keep Faye’s memory alive!

RIP FAYE

NOTE: There are a lot of women who’ve covertly helped mothers escape. Some have paid a high price. Thanks to them and to everyone who helps mothers and children.

TAKEAWAYS

The placement of children in temporary foster care after being taken from mothers is often just an intermediate step in returning a child to his patriarchal owner. It looks better to appear to be providing a process first. But it rarely results in protection.

The children will be isolated from the mother and anyone who supports the truth about the abusive father. They will be brainwashed into thinking the father is the good guy and their mother the problem. This is often done by employing the services of a court-affiliated therapist or by simply placing them under the full custody of the perpetrator, which causes trauma-bonding.

This serves the ultimate Old Boy goal: the cover up of father-child abuse and the reinstatement of the father’s control over his property. It also enables the father to continue to abuse both his child and ex.

Let’s hope Tom will be an exception to the rule and be allowed to live with his maternal family until Sarah is released…

The fact that there are organized underground railroads for mothers shows what a huge problem it is for mothers to protect children after divorce. The term “underground railroads” was used for slaves escaping their masters. Modern networks are being used to help women escape their masters. This is really surreal. How can women be in the same position as slaves hundreds of years ago?

Well, because, in a very real sense, women with children are still slaves to fathers of their children. They are not free to leave without serious consequences ranging from loss of primary custody to complete loss of contact and alienation from their children, as well as the inability to protect them, a mother’s primary drive.

Until women regain the power to keep and protect children—a power they only had before patriarchy took hold—they will remain subjugated. And underground railroads for mothers will continue to operate, much to men’s chagrin. May their attempts to locate their property be repeatedly foiled...

WHAT’S NEXT

Tom remains in care. He has not been allowed contact with his mother. He will be turning 12 next month and it is hoped his voice will be given weight.

An attorney has been appointed for him. A journalist was allowed to attend the last hearing. This is likely a CPS/family court case not open to the public.

Sarah remains incarcerated in Styal prison. She has been unable to speak with her attorney as of yet. It is unclear whether the attorney is a public defender or private.

There is a preliminary hearing on Friday, May 23rd at 10 a.m. at Manchester Crown Court. If you live in the area, please consider attending in support of Sarah.

And there is some good news! A campaign organized by Hagued Mums to MP Phil Brickell has resulted in him agreeing to help Sarah in whatever way he can. There were so many emails, he’s asked to stop contacting him! Haha. Good work mums. His address is phil.brickell.mp@parliament.uk. They are also asking mothers to share her story on social media and contact MSM to get the public’s eyes on this outrage.

Join The Women’s Coalition where we are uniting to fight for the power to maintain custody and protect our children.

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IN OTHER NEWS

CHAPTER 28 PART 5 IS OUT!

Legion finishes her direct examination of Grace and rests her case. Herry doesn’t call any witnesses or put on a case—he knows it’s rigged. So the third custody trial concludes. Judge Butcher takes over a month to deliver his ruling, which is just a replay of the first judges’ orders. He gives Herry sole custody and Legion no visitation unless she complies with a “program of mental therapy”, which Herry will oversee.

This Orwellian tactic is commonly used to empower ex-husbands to psychologically control and abuse their ex-wife and to coerce them into recanting abuse. Mothers who succumb to this ploy rarely get their kids back, and Legion is smart and strong enough to not fall victim to it.

Judge Butcher’s false and unjust findings and orders leads to Legion filing another appeal. She claims his ruling is “wholly illegal, wholly gender-based, gender-biased and gender-discriminatory” and painstakingly lists all the illegalities. With this second appeal, Part 5 of the Opera has begun.

In the last section, Legion finishes up with her questioning of Herry on the stand. He continues to lie and evade, but she gets him to admit to many things that demonstrate he should not continue to have sole custody—not even half—not even unsupervised. After Herry steps down, a good friend of Legion’s takes the stand. She testifies that Legion is a wonderful mother, Herry is not a good father, and that he had said he wanted Legion to “hit bottom”.

CHAPTER 28 of Mother-Fucking: The Saga of One Fucked Mother begins with Act III, Part 4 of “The Opera” from Book 3. The Opera has three Acts with five Parts—one for each of the three Family Court and two Appellate Court trials. Chapter 28 covers all of Act III: Part 4: the third Family Court trial, and Part 5: the second Appellate trial. This is a long chapter and will be published in newsletter-sized bites.

Dr. Blue’s novel is based on her own experience of the Custody Crisis. It uniquely conveys how Family Court judges are “mother-fucking” women—a form of systemic oppression—as protagonist Legion is systematically and methodically deprived of her children and money and reduced to “one fucked mother”.

Chapters are stand-alone interesting so you can begin reading anywhere. A Cast of Characters follows to help readers at any point. All published chapters are included in the Section: “Saga of One F**ked Mother” accessible on the top bar of the home page of Women’s Coalition News & Views. Sequential chapters are emailed out every Wednesday so make sure to subscribe if you haven’t yet!

TEASERS

Again, the ruling of Judge Butcher never in any of its 26 pages even mentions this stunning evidence of heinous and immediate revenge, alienation, child abuse and economic sabotage done by a man who had (just) received a 1990 ruling … FAVORABLE … to him.

…[Herry] is rewarded by Judge Butcher with grand and sweeping dictatorial oppression over his children and his ex-spouse, a woman, sentencing them all to no contact of any kind with each other throughout all of the Truemaier Brothers’ ENTIRE middle school and high school academic and athletic careers. This is nothing short of backlash, misogyny, discrimination, illegality and more.

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