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Financial Times; Aug 18, 2001
By DAVRELL ROBERTS TIEN

A mother lay on the kitchen floor of her Helsinki apartment. Dinner-time passed, but her two young children did not call for help. They were familiar with her heavy drinking. But this time the mother, sole custodian of the children, never regained consciousness.

Within a few days of her death two people petitioned the local court to assume responsibility for them: one was their biological father, the other their mother's lesbian partner.

Now, almost two years after the mother's death, and despite two court rulings granting sole custody to the father, the partner still has the children.

The bitter battle for custody has reached the Supreme Court of Finland. It has not garnered many headlines: the Finnish press has been almost completely silent on the matter, but the two children have become a European test case for the rights of homosexuals to have custody of their dead partner's children rather than the surviving biological parent.

Finnish family law has no provision for same-sex couples to apply for custody of their partner's children, but it is not unusual for lesbian couples to share custody of a child.

The Finnish Supreme Court could create a European precedent if it decided the children's best interests lay with a partner who has assumed a parental role against the wishes of the remaining biological parent.

The Helsinki Appeals Court ruled in March that the children - a boy, 13, and his sister, 11 - be returned to their biological father, Eric Comet, a Briton who lives in Switzerland. The court granted him sole custody and ordered the partner to arrange meetings once a month between Comet and the children until August to smooth their permanent return to Geneva that month. Comet travelled to Finland in March, April and May without being able to meet his children.

On June 13 the Supreme Court agreed to hear the partner's appeal against the custody ruling. Until the case comes to court - which could take eight months - the children will continue to live with Charlotta Lonnroth, 43, the biological mother's partner.

European Union parliamentarian Mary Banotti, the EU president's mediator for transnationally abducted children, is indig- nant at the Finnish handling of the case. "I cannot believe things are taking so long, that the courts and social authorities are not taking action to help the father in his legitimate desire to be reunited with his children," she said.

"The father has fought heroically to maintain contact with his children . . . and it is the responsibility of the social workers to stop the tragedy unfolding before their eyes."

Helsinki's social authorities have been in a state of confusion. In April, for example, they ordered Comet to pay FM60,000 (Pounds 6,458) in child support to Lonnroth, based on her de facto custody of the children.

The children were born in Switzerland and lived there until 1993 when their mother, encouraged by Lonnroth, moved to Finland. Their father had no warning of her intention. She told the Finnish authorities she wanted treatment for alcoholism in her home country but could not bear to leave her children behind.

After a bitter legal struggle, she was granted sole custody in 1996. After her death in 1999, Comet and Lonnroth applied for custody and were both recognised as legitimate petitioners. Four months later, four days before Christmas, Pekka Jantunen, the judge, ruled in favour of Comet. That decision was upheld by the appeal court.

The case highlights another conflict - between what is in a child's best interest, and the child's own wishes. The son, old enough to express a preference according to Finnish law, told social workers he felt secure with his mother's partner and did not wish to leave Finland.

The son's lawyer testified that the father was strict, domineer ing and authoritarian. Examples of his parental style were that he did not allow the children to watch TV or eat ketchup. Lawyers acting for the son and for Lonnroth both worked for the same Helsinki law firm, a practice discouraged but not forbidden in Finland.

If the son's wish to remain in Finland is respected, the Supreme Court might consider separating the siblings.

However, the social workers' official report also noted the partner's influence on the children. "After the mother's death the partner's influence over the children has strengthened and the children rely on her. They have no alternative."

In their report to the court, social workers said the son had an unhealthily negative view of his father and a forced removal from his home might harm the rebuilding of the father-son relationship. Lonnroth, social workers said, was unwilling to co- operate in re-establishing Comet's contact with the children.

As in many custody cases, charges and counter-charges have flown back and forth. The father filed a criminal complaint against Lonnroth, accusing her of sexually molesting his daughter in 1993. Lonnroth was charged with paedophilia but acquitted by a Helsinki court in 1996.

Comet's accusations have also landed him in court. He was convicted on four counts of slander in 1999 and has appealed against the conviction.

Just five weeks after the slander conviction, Comet's ex-wife died of acute alcohol intoxication. The two children were alone with her until Lonnroth returned home at 8.30pm. Comet was not allowed to attend the funeral.

Given the traumatic circumstances surrounding the death, the authorities decided to keep the children in their familiar environment, which, by their own admission, placed the children in a legal vacuum.

What effect the Supreme Court ruling might have on same-sex couples is unclear. David Bradley, a family lawyer at the London School of Economics who follows developments in the Nordic region, said: "It is difficult to talk about precedent in child custody disputes. Each case must be based on the best interests of the child and the facts surrounding the case, but behind each decision lie a host of value judgments.

"But this case is on the cutting edge in some ways because of the conflict between the blood-tie and caretaker."

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