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BY NOEL TOWELL LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
12/05/2009 2:09:00 PM
A South Coast mother who was jailed last year for fleeing the state with her child in defiance of a court order has been freed on appeal.
In a landmark decision last September, a Federal Magistrate ordered the woman, who was captured after a 13-month nationwide hunt by Australian Federal Police, to be locked up for six months, saying it was a warning to the nation's warring parents.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, took her 11-year-old son and went on the run in late June 2007 after the court ordered her to allow the boy to spend weekends with his father. She initially took the child from her NSW home to Queensland and from there to Western Australia, where she settled with a new partner and enrolled the boy at school under a new name.
The pair remained hidden in the west, where they were tracked down by the Australian Federal Police after a 13-month investigation.