A father is in the midst of an international custody battle as he fights to bring his young son living in Metro Detroit back to the United Kingdom.
Paperwork from a lengthy hearing last year in London says this is a case of child abduction.
Christopher Worcester came to the United States hoping to collect his son and go back home. On Wednesday, he’s on his way back empty handed, but he spoke with Local 4 before getting on his plane to the UK.
“I wake up in the morning thinking about him,” Worcester said. “I wake up at night thinking about him.”
Worcester hasn’t seen his 14-month-old son, Elio, in a year. The boy’s mother, Andrea Elizabeth Greib, is originally from the Ann Arbor area. When she broke off her relationship with Worcester just after the boy’s birth, she brought him to the U.S., officials said.
“I’ve consistently asked to see the baby, to spend time with the baby, love the baby with all my heart,” Worcester said. “I’ve supported in a whole variety of ways."
Worcester filed paperwork with the Hague Convention in London to for his son’s return to the UK. He brought a professional nanny to the federal courthouse Monday in the hope that he could bring Elio home.
But that didn’t happen. Greib renounced her American citizenship, so she and her son are Dutch and in the U.S. on visitor visas. The question is whether she will join Elio in London.
“It’s a conversation that needs to be had, so that’s something for the future,” Worcester said. “To begin with, I would just like to see my son where he is and was.”
Worcester denies he is a bull or abusive, which was the claim from Greib’s attorney. He will come back March 2 for the next hearing in the case and is holding out hope that they can work out the differences before then, according to officials. The judge encouraged everyone to try.