Ontario woman accused of kidnapping sons, fleeing to Poland in 2009, arrested

A Newmarket, Ont., woman accused of kidnapping her young sons in 2009, after their father was awarded sole custody, appeared in a virtual Newmarket courtroom from jail Monday following her arrest in Europe.

Edyta Ustaszewska Watkins, 52, is charged with two counts of abducting a child under the age of 14. She made her first court appearance Thursday, followed by another brief appearance a day later in Newmarket.

For years, the boys’ father, Stephen Watkins, fought to have his children returned to Canada. The boys were seven and four at the time Watkins told police his children were taken by their mother to Europe from the United States on March 6, 2009.

York Regional Police allege two months after Watkins was awarded sole custody of his sons by a court in January 2009, Ustaszewska Watkins, who had her access to her sons every other weekend, travelled with them from Toronto to New York before flying to Germany with help from her father.

Ted Ustaszewski received an 18-month conditional sentence, including a year under house arrest, in 2012 after he was convicted of helping her flee. He was ordered not to communicate with his daughter or grandsons as part of his sentence.

After more than two-and-a-half years, Watkins tracked his children down and petitioned a Warsaw court to return his sons to him. Without an extradition treaty in place between the two countries, a Polish court ruled against their return to Canada, finding it would be detrimental for the children to return to Canada after integrating fully into Polish society.

Despite a Canada-wide arrest warrant being issued for Ustaszewska Watkins for their alleged abduction, the children were not returned to Canada from Poland.

Ustaszewska Watkins had been named one of Canada’s most wanted by the RCMP.

For years, Watkins urged the Canadian government to have his sons, who are now 24 and 21, returned to Canada. It is unclear whether both children have returned to Canada while their mother remains behind bars, ordered not to communicate with them or their father.

The allegations against the accused have not been tested in court.