French woman tearfully apologizes for abducting her two children from B.C.

VANCOUVER (CP) - The French woman who abducted her children from B.C. for five years sobbed as she said she was sorry at her sentencing hearing Friday.

“I just want to apologize to the children and to apologize to Scott,” Nathalie Gettliffe said to the court. “I take full responsibility for my actions.” She pleaded guilty earlier this year to abducting her children Maximilien, 12, and 11-year-old daughter Josephine to France in 2001, in the middle of a custody fight with her ex-husband Scott Grant.

“I would like to leave jail as soon as possible so I can start having a better relationship with my children and their father,” she said.

Gettliffe made the apology at the end of a two-day sentencing hearing where Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg told her defence lawyer she’ll have real difficult crafting a sentence for such a harmful action to both the children and her ex-husband.

“The greatest harm to the children isn’t the five years they spent in France. It’s that they hate their father,” the judge said.

Gettliffe’s lawyer Richard Fowler replied “ultimately that will affect Nathalie Gettliffe when they learn the truth.”

The judge will sentence Getliffe on Monday.

The children’s father earlier told the court in a victim impact statement that five years ago he had a healthy, close and fun relationship with his children.

Grant said he dreamed many nights of a reunion where his children would rush into his arms for a hug.

Instead “we needed a translator, as they had lost their English,” he said.

“When I met them, I met with angry stares and questions like ‘why did you put mommy in jail, why do you hate us, why do you belong to a cult.”‘

Outside the court, Grant said there’s no doubt his relationship was poisoned while they were in France.

“They were absolutely angry,” he said.

“Through the translator I explained to them I don’t belong to a cult, I don’t give all my money to them. If I give my money to anybody it’s lawyers.”

Grant, a financial planner, told the court he spent about $500,000 in legal and other costs getting his children back.

Ironically, Grant said, it wasn’t his alleged violence or cult participation that set off Gettliffe’s divorce proceedings against him.

“Her initial reasons for divorce was because I was boring,” he chuckled.

Fowler said Gettliffe should get a 16-to 18-month jail sentence with three years’ probation.

Crown lawyer Gail Dickson wants Gettliffe to spend two years in jail and another three years on probation.

After Gettliffe pleaded guilty, a French TV station aired an interview with her in which she said her ex-husband was a brute who was involved in a zealous religious cult and she would abduct her children again.

Dickson told the court Gettliffe cast herself in the role of victim and intentionally made false claims to elicit the help of others to carry on with the abduction.

“It very much aggravates the damage she’s done to Scott Grant and her children,” Dickson said.

Grant doesn’t believe jail will work for his ex-wife.

“I don’t think she’ll be a better person or a different person,” he said.

“I think if she could get some help, it would go a long way. She’s a brilliant woman. She could do a lot of good things if she wanted to,” Grant said of Gettliffe, who’s running for the presidency of France.

Grant said his relationship with his children is getting easier.

Max is playing hockey and Josephine was busy Friday preparing crafts for a craft sale next weekend.

Max’s birthday is at the end of December, but Grant said his son was worried his friends wouldn’t be able to come to a party over the winter school break.

“We had a pre-birthday party,” he said.

When Grant gave his son a gift, Max expressed surprise.

His voice cracked with emotion as he explained “I told him ‘well, I’ve missed a lot of your birthdays.”‘

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