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Child Abuse Professionals Rally Around American Fugitive Returning to the US After 14 Years in Hiding

by jayr_patron | September 29, 2008 at 08:11 pm | 44 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

Holly Ann Collins and her two children, Zachary and Jennifer, fled to the Netherlands in 1994. Seeking refugee status, Holly Ann and her children were granted human rights asylum by the Dutch government.

Their situation was not a result of war nor political abuse, but of domestic violence. And upon their return to Hennepin County, Minnesota, Holly Ann pled guilty of contempt of court and accepted 40 hours of community service.

"The more serious charges of kidnapping and custody interference that could have resulted in a long prison sentence were dismissed" writes Newswise. "Holly Ann Collins acknowledged in an interview that she indeed had contempt for the court that ordered her children into a life of abuse."

Holly Ann’s generous nature led many of the war orphans in the camp to gravitate to her, and she eventually included many of them in her own family. After three years and extensive evaluation the Dutch government granted her permanent asylum. When the FBI tracked her down a year ago, the Dutch government refused to extradite her.

Dr. Eli Newberger, a member of the Leadership Council’s Board and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard University, evaluated Jennifer and Zachary before they were placed in the custody of their father. The court ignored his team’s findings. “Despite the children’s clear disclosures of abuse, their documented history of serious injuries, and our team’s strong conclusion that the children needed to be protected, the court still chose to place them with the person they feared most in the world,” states Newberger.

The court acknowledged abuse had taken place but was swayed by the bogus legal argument that the children’s fears were a result of “Parental Alienation Syndrome,” a legal strategy of accused abusers which claims mothers brainwash children into false abuse disclosures. Holly Ann was allowed only limited, supervised visitations in which the children where forbidden to talk to their mother about the abuse or show her their bruises. When they were 9 and 11, Jennifer and Zachary passed her secret notes during supervised visits begging to be rescued from their father’s home.

Jennifer Collins, now a 23 year old psychology student, clearly remembers the abuse and wants to help other children forced to live with abusive parents. Jennifer was invited to tell her story to an audience of mental health professionals working in the field of family violence at the 13th International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego on September 17, 2008. Over a thousand attendees were riveted by her account of her escape from child abuse and gave her a standing ovation as she received a medal of courage from the California Protective Parents Association and the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence.