A Father's Love

One Man’s Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home

by David Goldman

2011 

Not necessarily a book I would have picked up on my own initiative, A Father’s Love was so captivating and utterly horrifying, that I couldn’t put it down.

Passed along with high recommendations from a dear friend, this book recounts the events surrounding the abduction of Sean Goldman in June 2004 and the excruciating battle his father, David Goldman, undertook to bring him home.

Alarmingly, the perpetrators were Sean’s mother and maternal grandparents.

As a quick recap, four year old Sean left his father and home in New Jersey to travel with his mother and grandparents back to their native country, Brazil. The trip was labelled “family vacation”, but in reality, it was anything but.

Just days after his son and wife left, David Goldman received a phone call from his wife stating their marriage was over and their son would not be returning to the United States.

Thus began David’s five year separation from his son and a fight against unbelievable legal and governmental corruption.

I won’t write what happened, but let’s just say, the Hague Abduction Convention didn’t work.

What is the Hague Abduction Convention?  
As quoted from the previous link, “The Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multilateral treaty, which seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of abduction and retention across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their prompt return”. 

Not all countries participate in this treaty. A list of the countries who do can be accessed here.

First of all, I must say, it’s a sad day that something like the Hague Abduction Convention even exists. However, as David Goldman stated in his book, at the time of Sean’s abduction there were at least sixty-five other American children who had been abducted to Brazil and, at the time of writing the book, nearly three thousand had been abducted internationally.

Most of these children have been abducted by a parent or legal-guardian.

The Hague Abduction Convention is obviously necessary.  

Please note: Brazil had signed the treaty at the time of Sean’s abduction, but the courts chose not to cooperate with it.

To learn more about this type of child abduction, visit David Goldman’s website at www.bringseanhome.org.

On a final note, I was surfing the web the other day and came across a recent interview and news report about David and Sean Goldman. Apparently, their ordeal is not over as Sean's grandparents continue to pursue legal action against David.

Reading on...