Lisa Hanna

Former Miss World Lisa Hanna has lost the custody battle for her five-year-old son to live with her in Jamaica.

The Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed her appeal, unanimously upholding a Supreme Court ruling that the child should return to Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States, to live with his father Dr. David Panton, a businessman who is also a Jamaican.

When the parents were divorced in June 2004, they signed an agreement in a court in Atlanta that Dr. Panton should have primary physical custody of the child and Miss Hanna would have visiting parental rights.

Injunction

In December 2005, Dr. Panton took the child to visit Miss Hanna in Jamaica for the Christmas holidays. Miss Hanna went to the Supreme Court on January 17 and got an injunction barring Dr. Panton from removing the child from Jamaica.

Dr. Panton applied to have the order discharged and Justice Gloria Smith heard legal arguments in chambers and ruled that the child should be returned to Atlanta.

Miss Hanna appealed and President of the Court of Appeal Justice Paul Harrison, Justice Algernon Smith, and Justice Zaila McCalla dismissed the appeal and held that Justice Smith applied the proper test and took into consideration the relevant factors.

The court said that the existing custody order in respect of the child who was born in Jamaica in March 2001, but was taken by his parents to reside in Atlanta in February 2004 may be varied by the Atlanta Court, on the application of either party if circumstances warrant such a variation.