Justice for Ken: Allegations fly in Ken's court case
Father whose children were abducted faces court case
The trial of British national Ken Spooner, accused of attempting to re-abduct his children from Zambia, has been postponed until September 6.
The first days of the trial have – according to reports in the Zambian media – been punctuated by allegation and counter-allegation.
Mr Spooner, 47, a former Great Linford resident who has been the focus of a campaign by this newspaper to persuade the British government to intervene and help return his two boys Caelan and Devlan Spooner to Britain, stands accused of conspiracy to commit a felony.
It is alleged he, along with a maid Febby Siamasamu, attempted to steal the children's passports from their mother Zanetta Nyendwa with the intention of returning to this country. The pair are charged with conspiring to steal the passports from Miss Nyendwa's house on June 24 and 25.
Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Devlan, five, and Caelan, three, were abducted from their Milton Keynes home in October 2008. Miss Nyendwa took the boys on a holiday to her homeland with the permission of her former partner Mr Spooner, but shortly after her arrival in the African country she told him she would be extending her stay and has not returned since.
Mr Spooner has spent the last 23 months and several thousand pounds attempting to bring his children home.
He managed to obtain an Order from the English High Court stating that the boys were wards of that court and should be returned to England immediately, but the Zambian High Court later dismissed the ruling saying it didn't apply in that country.
And at the end of June Mr Spooner was arrested amid accusations of a conspiracy to steal the boy's passports. He was eventually charged with conspiracy to commit a felony.
After a series of adjournments proceedings finally commenced at Lusaka Magistrates' Court last Wednesday, when Miss Nyendwa's mother Rosanna Nyendwa appeared as a witness.
According to the Zambian Post newspaper, she told magistrate Fides Hamaundu that Mr Spooner had been claiming that Miss Nyendwa had illegally detained his children and vowed to do whatever it takes to get them back.
She described how she had been away on a business trip when she had been told the house had been broken into, and that by the time she had returned Mr Spooner and Ms Siamasamu has been arrested.
The paper also described how she had denied she had attempted to obtain Zambian passports for the children and that the allegations against Mr Spooner had been made to prevent him making fresh applications over the custody of the boys.
A separate article on allAfrica.com quoted Rosanna as saying: "I and my daughter Zanneta were called at Longacres police post to go and identify the stolen passports as well as identify
numbers on the call records of Spooner and Febby, I was able to identify both numbers because I used to receive frequent calls and text messages from them, the last being on June 24 this year."
It said the court also heard how the Anti-Corruption Commission had been called in to investigate the passport
allegations against her, but did not find any Zambian passports for her grandchildren.
The case was adjourned until Friday when Miss Nyendwa herself took to the stand.
Both the Post and allAfrica.com reported that she had told the magistrate how she had found the boy's passports in the possession of her maid, Ms Siamasamu.
She said she had fired a previous maid after she discovered she was communicating with Mr Spooner and had warned Ms
Siamasamu not to do the same.
Under cross examination she said she had not disobeyed the English Order by keeping her children in Zambia because it states she was the only one required to take them back to England, not Mr Spooner.
She also denied attempting to change the two passports of her children and organising for Mr Spooner to be murdered, adding that Kabwata police officers dropped the offence because there
were no witnesses.
When defence counsel produced an affidavit signed by her at Woodland Police Station bearing the names of Kennedy and Alexandra Nyendwa, instead of Devlan and Caelan Spooner, she said she had not seen it before and denied the hand writing was hers.
An attempt by state prosecutor Victor Choongo to revoke Mr Spooner's police bond and have him returned to jail was denied by Mrs Hamaundu.
Mr Choongo said Mr Spooner had been sending text messages to Miss Nyendwa and her parents insulting and threatening them that he would do whatever it takes to get his children
back.
Mrs Hamaundu reserved ruling on the application until September 6 when the case returns to court.
The trial will continue on September 7.Justice
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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