A South Carolina judge has sentenced fugitive mother Dorothy Barnett, who kidnapped her baby daughter two decades ago and lived a secret life in Australia, to 21 months' jail.
The sentence came after Barnett's daughter, Savanna Todd, who grew up in South Africa, New Zealand and Queensland not knowing her real name or history, gave emotional testimony to the Charleston court.
Savanna, now 21, only realised her mother was a fugitive when Australian authorities and the FBI tracked them down in Mountain Creek, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, in 2013.
Savanna asked US District Court Judge Richard Gergel on Tuesday to treat her mother leniently.
"I was loved beyond belief," Savanna, who still goes by the alias Samantha Geldenhuys her mother gave her, told the court, The Post and Courier newspaper reported.
The testimony came after Barnett entered guilty pleas to international parental kidnapping and falsifying two passport applications.
Barnett fled the US in 1994 after her marriage ended to husband Benjamin Harris Todd III and she lost full custody of Savanna.
Todd never gave up looking for his daughter during the 20 years Barnett was a fugitive.
Todd's lawyer, Graham Sturgis, told the court "very few of us" would know the pain his client suffered while attempting to find his child.
Barnett has been in custody since her November, 2013, arrest in Queensland and Judge Gergel said he hasn't decided if she will receive credit for the time she has served.
Share
