Nigerian-British man kidnaps son
British authorities have launched a search for a Nigerian-British man accused of kidnapping his five-year-old son from France to Nigeria after he was wrongly released from a London prison and may have fled to Britain within days.Ifedayo Adeyeye, 58, was released from London’s HMP Pentonville on April 21, despite being sentenced to an extra 12 months in prison the day before for repeatedly defying court orders to return his son, Lories, to his mother in France.According to court proceedings reported by Sky News, Adeyeye spent hours “loitering” in London after his release, reportedly enjoying dinner and drinks at a pub before traveling to Spain the next day. Police were reportedly informed about the jail disturbances only three days later, drawing sharp criticism from the court.Calling it a shocking state failure, High Court judge Mr Justice Hayden said prison authorities showed a “worrying lack of urgency”.The judge said, “If the police had been contacted immediately, perhaps, almost certainly, this could have been prevented. The public is entitled to expect much better than this.”
Kidnapping of a child during first night stay
The case centers on Lories N’Dozsé Adeyeye, a five-year-old boy born in France to Adeyeye and Claire N’Dozsé, a Cameroonian citizen.The couple met in Grenoble in 2020 and later separated. After DNA tests confirmed that Adeyeye was Loris’s biological father, a French court granted him supervised visitation rights, while full custody remained with the mother.The trouble began in July 2024 during Laurie’s first night staying with his father.Instead of returning the child, Adeyeye allegedly took her from France to England and then to Nigeria without the mother’s consent.When N’Djosse asked for answers, Adeyeye reportedly claimed that the child had gone on a “two-week vacation” with relatives. Investigators later discovered that he had secretly smuggled the lorries out of France.French authorities later issued an international arrest warrant against him on child kidnapping charges.UK court used rare powersThe case later took an extraordinary legal turn when the High Court of England ruled that it had the authority to order the return of the child, even though Laurie was outside Britain.Justice Hayden said the case was highly unusual because it involved three countries – France, Britain and Nigeria. The court also observed that Nigeria is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, complicating efforts to ensure the boy’s return.Despite this, the High Court exercised its “inherent jurisdiction” based on the Lories’ British nationality and ordered Adeyeye to return the child directly to France.After repeatedly ignoring court orders, Adeyeye was jailed for six months in January 2026 for contempt of court. While serving that sentence, he was found guilty of further breaches and on 20 April was sentenced to a further 12 months.However, prison officials reportedly failed to process the new sentence in time, resulting in his mistaken release the next morning.
Judge calls kidnapping an ‘act of cruelty’
Justice Hayden described Adeyeye as “arrogant and cunning”, “cold and calculating”, and said the kidnapping was “an act of cruelty that even this court rarely witnesses”.The judge said of Lauries, “He now finds himself in a foreign country, without his father or mother,” adding that the child’s entire world had been “taken away.”The judge also highlighted concerns raised during supervised visits to France before the abduction. Contact center staff reportedly described Adeyeye as aggressive, neglectful, and uninterested in understanding his son’s daily routine or emotional needs.
The suspect may have fled to Spain
During the latest hearing, the Metropolitan Police told the court that Adeyeye may have traveled to Spain on April 22, a day after his wrongful release. Spanish authorities have reportedly been alerted.The court heard that prison officials blamed a “communication failure” with the courts for the release, with Justice Hayden dismissing this claim as “completely baseless”.Lawyers representing Ms N’Jose accused British authorities of repeatedly failing the mother and child.His lawyer Chris Bryden said, “The state has failed him not only in securing the father’s release, but also by not notifying the Metropolitan Police immediately.”
Court removes anonymity to aid search
In a rare move, the High Court allowed the identification and images of both Adeyeye and Lawries to be published to help locate them.Family court proceedings involving children are usually kept confidential, but the judge ruled that transparency was justified in exceptional circumstances and in the public interest.Britain’s Justice Ministry said it was working with police to recapture Adeyeye and acknowledged growing concerns over the wrongful release of prisoners.Official figures show that 179 prisoners were wrongly released in England and Wales between April 2025 and March 2026.