Case Update (2020): Pawananun v. Pettit; child abuse should be serious and well-documented to be considered as a grave risk of harm
In the case of Pawananun v. Pettit , the U.S. District Court returned the parties' two daughters to their habitual residence of Thailand. The parties stipulated that the father, Mr. Pettit, had wrongfully removed the parties' children from Thailand. Mr. Pettit focused on arguing that it would present a grave risk of harm to the children to return them to Thailand because of certain claims of abuse of his daughters that he believed were inflicted by a family friend that may have been having an affair with his ex-Wife. The family friend, Mr. Hardy, was a doctor who had moved to Thailand from the United States. Mr. Hardy had been investigated in the U.S. after allegedly sexually assaulting patients and staff. He surrendered his U.S. medical license. Upon learning of this, Mr. Pettit began surreptitiously investigating Mr. Hardy and his involvement with his daughters by taking the children to a series of doctors without advising their mother of the s...