A father has launched a crowdfunding campaign to challenge the law on parental abduction in Scotland after a legal loophole allowed his wife to take his children abroad and never return.

Nathan Gilmour’s six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son were taken out of the country almost three years ago and he has been pleading with the Scottish authorities to take action to secure their return ever since.

In England and Wales, there is legislation in place preventing a parent from taking children abroad without another parent or carer’s consent, but in Scotland it is not a criminal offence unless there are certain court orders in place.

The Scottish Government has said it will consider addressing the loophole – dubbed the kidnappers’ charter – “in due course” as part of its Family Justice Modernisation Strategy.

However, Mr Gilmour, a teacher from Ayrshire, believes the government should be taking action urgently to protect children and prevent other parents facing the same heartbreak.

He is now attempting to raise a judicial review challenging the legislation in Scotland, but – as he is not entitled to legal aid – is seeking to raise funds via a GoFundMe page.

His advisers suggest that he will need to raise £100,000 for the proceedings and the page has so far reached almost £8000.

Mr Gilmour said: “The Scottish Government conducted a consultation on this issue several years ago and at that point it was decided that more work needed to be done, and basically that’s what I’m repeatedly told - but the work doesn’t seem to be being done.

“They’ve just continued to neglect the issue and this is why I’ve had to push and push and push, and I’m now having to raise an extraordinary amount of money to go through a legal procedure in a bid to get things changed.

“The crowdfunding campaign has only been up and running for a short time and we’ve already raised a good amount and I’m very humbled by that and exceptionally grateful to everyone who has donated, but there’s still a long way to go.”

Neither Police Scotland nor the Scottish Government collate information on the number of international parental abduction cases in Scotland, however charity Reunite International, which offers support to parents like Nathan, estimates that it deals with 400 to 500 cases in the UK each year.

Figures from the Scottish Government also show that between 2015 and 2021, its Central Authority has been involved in 110 cases seeking a Hague Convention application to a foreign country for the return of a child.

Mr Gilmour says he believes these cases are just a fraction of the true number.

“It’s just a drop in the bucket of the actual figures,” he said. “Because for me to get to the Central Authority, it took countless child welfare hearings, dealings with SCRA, the police and the courts, and eventually it was just a case of pushing lawyers to go to the Central Authority.

“I wouldn’t have thought that many people would have the finances or the family support or knowledge of their rights to know that that was open to them.

“So, really, the government doesn’t know how big an issue it is. They don’t know how many families have been devastated by this.”

When the children were first taken out of Scotland, Police Scotland did not consider them to be at risk so no action was taken.

A civil warrant for the children’s mother Angelica Gilmour Gray was issued by the courts, but this can only be enacted by Sheriff Officers.

Police reviewed the case in November last year and confirmed that the children are now being treated as missing following a supplementary report on their mother.

Mr Gilmour believes that his children could have been returned to Scotland much sooner if officers had acted more quickly while his wife was making her way through Europe.

The youngsters are now believed to be in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is not signed up to the Hague Convention – making it difficult to have the children tracked down and returned.

Mr Gilmour has raised numerous complaints with Police Scotland over their handling of his case and pursued a review with the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) when these were dismissed by the force.

Pirc has now found that four of his complaints were not dealt with to a reasonable standard.

Detective Superintendent Kenny Armstrong said: “The safety of children is a priority for Police Scotland and we take reports of concerns seriously.

“We have kept in regular contact with Mr Gilmour and our response in this case has been kept under close review, with a missing persons investigation established last November.

"In January 2021 we apologised to Mr Gilmour for how his initial complaint was allocated and progressed.

"We have now received the Complaint Handling Review from the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner and will consider the content and take appropriate steps."

Pauline Barr, an adviser with DM Legal who has been assisting Mr Gilmour, added: “The disparity between Scots law and wider UK legislation on parental child abduction, put very simply, assists parents in removing children from the UK without legal recourse for their return whereby they are removed to non-Hague Convention signatory countries such as the TRNC.

“We are calling upon the Scottish Government to obtemper their obligations to all children at risk of being removed from or via Scotland by closing this loophole, moving to Judicial Review as is necessary.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson previously told The Herald: “International child abduction is included in our Family Justice Modernisation Strategy and we will consider if any amendments are needed to the legislation in due course.”