No jail for Victoria mom who abducted daughter in 1993

A Victoria woman who abducted her daughter in 1993, and kept the child from her father for 18 years, was given a two-year conditional sentence by a Toronto judge and will serve no prison time for the crime.

The sentence ends a lengthy saga in which a man searched tirelessly for his daughter but today says he has learned to forgive, despite never having the chance to see his child grow up.

Patricia O'Byrne was arrested in December, 2011, in Victoria, charged with abduction in contravention of a custody order. She entered a guilty plea last February.

In a 27-page judgment on Tuesday, Madame Justice Mara Greene wrote that she took into consideration that Ms. O'Byrne, "despite committing this horrible offence, was a great mother" to her daughter. The daughter's identity is protected by a publication ban.

According to the agreed statement of facts in the case, Ms. O'Byrne had suffered sexual abuse as a child, and at the time of the abduction "wrongly believed that her daughter would fall to the same fate she suffered."

Joe Chisholm, the father of the now 21-year-old, said Tuesday's sentence was a relief.

"My daughter didn't want her [Ms. O'Byrne] to go to jail and I was completely onside with what my daughter wants. That's all there is to it," he told The Globe and Mail. "You can't love your daughter and hate her mother."

Mr. Chisholm didn't always think like that. He says it has taken time.

In 1992, a year after the couple's daughter arrived, Mr. Chisholm and Ms. O'Byrne separated and entered a joint custody agreement.

Prior to Ms. O'Byrne's pregnancy, she was diagnosed with depression but stopped taking medication once she became pregnant, according to court documents.

In May, 1993, the documents say, Ms. O'Byrne left the Toronto area and travelled to South Carolina with her then 20-month-old daughter. Ms. O'Byrne's lawyer then received a letter from her saying she had left the jurisdiction and Mr. Chisholm wouldn't be able to locate her.

"I didn't see it coming," Mr. Chisholm said. "We both agreed to it [custody agreement], but she had a plan B that was already worked out."

Ms. O'Byrne then took her daughter to Ireland, and about a decade ago the two came to Victoria, living under false names, according to the documents.

"I was hurt initially, angry, and there was a time when I would have revelled in her being punished," Mr. Chisholm said. "Somehow I felt that it would vindicate me."

Mr. Chisholm spent years trying to find his daughter. He worked through various child find and police agencies. He took up blogging and posted videos to YouTube hoping that someone might provide a lead.

In 2011, police received a tip that Ms. O'Byrne was in Victoria.

Mr. Chisholm said on Tuesday that he's happy it's all over. "I honestly don't have anger … I've sort of come through the other side and understood that people are affected by their past," he said.

"… It's not a simple matter of who's the good guy and who's the bad guy, and the good should be vindicated and the bad should be punished."

He admits that people are often surprised at the way he's come to see the situation.

"The reality is that this is a story about a girl. A girl who is now an adult, and what her mother and her father did to each other or went through 20 years ago isn't the important part of the story," Mr. Chisholm said.

"It's that she's just starting her life as an adult and this is a lot to deal with."

Julianna Greenspan, Ms. O'Byrne's lawyer, says her client will be moving back to Victoria where she will be under house arrest, with certain exceptions, for the first year of the sentence. She said that Ms. O'Byrne is remorseful for what she did.

"She sees the impact and consequences of her decisions and sees the relationships that did not happen as a result of her actions," Ms. Greenspan said from Toronto. "She completely acknowledges and recognizes that and is truly remorseful."

Mr. Chisholm wouldn't give too many details about his daughter. He says she's handled the ordeal with maturity, and has chosen to avoid any media attention. The two were in contact immediately after Ms. O'Byrne's arrest.

"I don't want her to feel responsibility or guilt about any suffering I've endured, and I don't want her to feel responsible for any suffering her mother endured," Mr. Chisholm said.

He also says Ms. O'Byrne raised their daughter well, and added that she loves her mother a lot. He says while he hasn't yet talked with Ms. O'Byrne, he welcomes the opportunity.

"I just want to hear the stories. The first day of school, the little idiosyncrasies I missed out on," he said. "Let's bury the hatchet."