Kidnap father is allowed jail visits from son: Malkin wins interim deal after hearing
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Your support makes all the difference.PETER MALKIN, the father jailed for abducting his son, has won the right to be visited in prison by the 12-year-old boy, Oliver.
A High Court judge yesterday approved an agreement between the 54-year-old Kent country club owner and his former wife, Elisa Pridmore, that he can have contact with the boy he snatched from her home in France - for the third time - last November.
After an hour-long private hearing, Mr Justice Ewbank said Malkin's plea for access to his son would be reviewed on 25 July when further evidence would be presented. He added: 'An agreement has been reached for some contact with his son during this period.'
Malkin has served a month of his 18-month sentence for abducting Oliver in breach of a court order not to remove him from the care of his mother, 36, who lives in Lorient, Brittany, with her new husband Andrew Pridmore.
Malkin was taken to the High Court yesterday on his way from Pentonville prison to Canterbury prison, where he will serve the remainder of his sentence.
He looked dishevelled and shaky on his feet as he emerged from the courtroom handcuffed to a female prison officer, refusing to comment, but smiling weakly to reporters.
Asked if he was happy with the arrangement, Malkin's solicitor, Sandra Davis, said: 'He's in Pentonville prison. It's very difficult to feel happy about anything there.' She said she could not reveal how often he would be seeing Oliver, but he was 'obviously anxious to see him and remains concerned about his well-being'.
Malkin would be 'taking all steps' to win his release from prison, including a court plea to purge his contempt by apologising for his conduct and pledging not to defy the court again, she said.
She revealed that last week a French court had, in his absence, jailed him for a year and ordered him to pay a fine, costs and compensation totalling pounds 20,000 in relation to a previous kidnap in 1991. He might also face French court proceedings over the latest abduction. 'He is taking advice on how to deal with the numerous difficulties facing him,' Ms Davis said.
Mrs Pridmore's solicitor, Jill Noury, said: 'Agreement has been reached and Oliver's mother is happy with it. Oliver will be brought over from France to see his father in prison.'
Mr Malkin, of Bridge Place Country Club, near Canterbury, was arrested at Heathrow on 6 January when he returned with his son from Egypt. Oliver was then flown to France where he was reunited with his mother.
Oliver, a ward of court in the sole legal care and control of his mother, had been snatched and bundled into a car by his father and others, including a hired helper, as he was getting off a school bus near his home on 8 November.
Malkin was accompanied yesterday by his girlfriend, Audrey Donnelly, 45, who was not punished for her part in assisting in the abduction of Oliver.
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