Custody case ends; dad wins

[Brent]

Custody case ends; dad wins
Boy, 5, had been living in N. Ireland with mom

Published December 12. 2003 8:30AM

RICK CUNDIFF
Staff Writer


OCALA - Dylan Gunn, the 5-year-old at the center of an international custody battle between his divorced parents, will remain in Dunnellon with his father as his mother flies back to Northern Ireland next week.

Circuit Judge Carven D. Angel ruled Thursday that Robert A. Gunn should have primary residential custody of Dylan, the child he and Cara Gunn had together.

"I can't even describe my reaction. I just burst into tears," Robert Gunn said Thursday evening. "There's no word that can describe the emotion that I felt."

Cara Gunn could not be reached for comment Thursday. Her lawyer, Robert Appleget, did not return a telephone call to his office seeking comment.

The Gunns divorced last year, after Cara Gunn took Dylan and her daughter from a previous relationship and left the United States to return to her native country. Angel awarded residential custody of Dylan at the time of the divorce to 30-year-old Robert Gunn.

Dylan, born in 1998 in Northern Ireland, is legally a citizen of both the United States and Northern Ireland. His father is Protestant, his mother Catholic.

Citing a treaty known as the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, a Belfast court ruled in August that Cara Gunn, 29, had to return to Florida with Dylan for a custody hearing.

"It's been devastating," Robert Gunn said of the bitter fight for his son. "When it first happened, I thought I'd never see my son again."

The case has drawn international attention ranging from Northern Ireland newspapers to the British Broadcasting Corp., which sent a film crew to Ocala.

Lawyers for both parents spent a significant amount of time in court arguing whether Dylan would be in a safer environment in Dunnellon or in the Northern Ireland city known to Catholics as Derry and to Protestants as Londonderry. Angel's ruling never mentioned the differences between the two cities.

The four-page ruling does chastise both parents.

"The parents have prevented the court from acting in the best interest of the child," Angel wrote. "The parents' decision to divorce leaves the court with nothing better than the second best interest of the child . . . If you asked any child after a divorce, 'Who won?' the only answer he could give would be: 'I don't know, it wasn't me.' "

Angel's ruling criticizes Cara Gunn on several points, including the fact that her daughter had little or no contact with that child's biological father before the Gunns' marriage broke up and Cara Gunn moved back to Northern Ireland. The father provided no financial or emotional support, Angel noted.

"This indicates some, if not a total, lack of concern for the ideals of shared parenting by (Dylan's) Mother," he wrote.

(Geee, ya think??  ...Brent)

The ruling also notes that Cara Gunn complained that Robert Gunn, an information technology officer, worked excessive hours and was never home.

"With only a high school diploma and seven years experience in the Navy, the Father obtained what would have to be described as an excellent job, making over $70,000 a year and home every night. Yet the Mother complained that he worked long hours and too late," Angel wrote. "This does not indicate an attitude focused on establishing a family, but an attitude more self-centered than family-centered. What should have been an asset to the family was an irritation to the Mother."

Cara Gunn testified in November that she had no way to get a job, and often had to stay at home because her husband drove the family's only vehicle. She also said Robert Gunn controlled the family's money.

"It was not shown that these were items of necessity for this family, or that the Mother, or child, were denied any necessities. This indicates a Mother more concerned about matters of self than matters of family," Angel responded in Thursday's ruling.

Angel also regarded Cara Gunn's decision in August 2002 to leave the United States without telling her husband as an example of her "lack of commitment to shared parenting."

The judge found both Cara and Robert Gunn to be competent parents, and that both have a "loving and caring relationship with their son."

For Robert Gunn, that relationship has been strengthened through visits with Dylan over the last three months.

"It's been steadily growing," he said. "For anybody that really knows me, Dylan's my world. He's a mini-me. We have this unbelievably fascinating relationship."

Cara Gunn had temporary custody of Dylan through the hearings, and while awaiting Angel's ruling.

Cara Gunn has 10 days to request a rehearing, and 30 days to appeal Angel's ruling to the 5th District Court of Appeal.

Because Cara Gunn lived for a time in the United States without a proper visa when the couple were married, she had to get special permission to return to Florida for the hearing held in November. She must leave the country by Dec. 19, and is forbidden from returning for 10 years.

Robert Gunn's lawyer, Ron Cole, said he believed Cara Gunn might challenge those restrictions in court in order to live near her son.

"I predict that Cara will find a way to stay here, to come back here," Cole said. "That's the best solution — for all of them to be here in Ocala."

Rick Cundiff covers the courts. He can be reached at [email protected], or at 867-4130.

[joni]

Scary story though...replace Florida with Illinois and Ireland with Michigan and it sounds exactly like my husband's scenario....