‘I now wish to live my life’

Duncan* has been aching to turn 18 for years and on Thursday he finally took the step into adulthood, happy in the knowledge that any custody commitments between his parents would evaporate forever. “I’ve been thinking and waiting for this day for so long... In the eyes of the law being 18 makes a huge difference. I finally have a voice,” he said. An only child, his parents’ jostling landed his 57-year-old mother in prison for failing to abide by the custody contract and it was only a presidential pardon that saved her from serving the full three-month term. The story first came to light in The Sunday Times last month, when Duncan, then still 17, came forward to say his mother’s only crime was failing to insist he visited his father when he preferred to stay home and study. The boy’s situation exposed the problems courts faced when separation between two sides became bitter and raised the question of whether prison was the solution in such cases. His father felt there were grounds for the sentence as his ex-wife had been given the chance to reform between the original sentence and the appeal but never did, and was “disgusted” by the presidential pardon. But basking in the sun...