Jail for mom who took kids

The Leader/April 16, 2006
By Dan Ferguson

Nathalie Gettliffe was ordered to spend the Easter holiday in a Canadian jail Thursday by a Richmond Provincial Court judge.

The former resident of Surrey was arrested for abducting her own children last week when she returned from France to defend her doctoral thesis at UBC.

She will have a bail hearing on Wednesday.

In 2001, Gettliffe left Surrey for France with her two children, Max and Josephine, despite a B.C. Supreme Court order that awarded custody to her estranged husband, Scott Grant.

Since then, she has refused to return the children, despite a several court orders to bring them back to Canada.

Gettliffe has said she took her children because B.C. authorities did not accept her claim that the church her husband belongs to is a religious cult, a claim her husband denies.

Grant, a 40-year-old financial planner, is a member of the International Church of Christ.

Grant learned his ex was coming back to Canada when he performed a Google search hunting for coverage of the French court decision.

That led him to the UBC faculty of graduate studies website and a posted schedule of doctoral examinations which revealed Gettliffe would be appearing there on April 12.