Police put out unnecessary media alert in trying to stop father from protecting his children from mother.

September 14, 2004 (Vancouver Television)

Police are hunting for two suspects after three children disappeared from Williams Lake.

They're asking for the public's help in finding 43-year-old Melvin Mabbot and his common law wife 49-year-old Joan Thomson. Both are wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for breaching a court order to return Mabbott's three children to their mother. The missing children are 13-year-old Jared, 9-year-old Taya and 8-year-old Ashley. Police believe Mabbott and Thomson are taking the children to Alberta.

http://www.vancouvertelevision.com/topnews.jsp?id=/news/stories/2004/09/news-20040914-02.htm

September 16, 2004

THE PROVINCE - VANCOUVER By Lena Sin Staff Reporter


A B.C. Supreme Court order that granted a man's ex-wife interim custody of
their three children was overturned yesterday after four days of legal wrangling and evading police. It was a happy conclusion for Melvin Ronald Mabbott, 43, whose day began in Victoria with an arrest. Both Mabbott and his wife, Joan Elizabeth Thomson, 49, were arrested for breach of a court order at about 10:45 a.m. by sheriffs who'd been alerted about warrants issued by Williams Lake RCMP on Monday.

"We were alerted that Ms. Thomson and Mr. Mabbott were in the courthouse and
we were also alerted that there was a Canada-wide  warrant out for them in Williams Lake," said Sheriff James Lee. "They were here to make an application to have an order set aside, and just because the warrants were outstanding, I still had to execute them."

Doug Christie, Mabbott's lawyer, said the charge was stayed later yesterday.
"He came here to set aside a court order, but that's not breaching it," said
Christie. The legal feud began Sept. 10 when Mabbott's ex-wife, Teresa Anne
Howe, was granted interim custody of their children pending a trial on the
issue of Howe's access to the kids.

But Christie said Mabbott was not served notice of the application and didn't even know about the court hearing. When Mounties phoned Mabbott on Sunday afternoon to tell him he had to turn over his three children Jared, 13, Taya, 9, and Ashley, 8 - to his ex-wife, Mabbott refused.

Police issued a warrant the next day. Yesterday, Christie said issues of access were settled in court and Mabbott and Thomson were allowed to return to their home in Alberta, where the children are staying. The family had moved from Williams Lake to Alberta about three weeks ago because of Mabbott's work. Christie said he is considering a lawsuit against Williams Lake RCMP, who issued a press release Monday alerting the public that police were concerned about the children's safety and were looking for information on Mabbott's whereabouts. Christie said a suggestion that Mabbott may harm his children was "totally unnecessary ... it created alarm.  It was both unjustified and highly defamatory."