A DUNDEE father who appealed a decision by a Scottish judge ordering him to return his three children to their mother in France has lost his appeal.

Following the appeal at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Lord Osborne has ruled in favour of the original decision to send the children back home.

Arrangements will now be made to take the three, two girls and a boy aged 15, 11 and nine, back to live with their mother in France.

Meanwhile, they have been placed under the protection of Dundee City Council whose officers will supervise their place of residence and be authorised to take steps to ensure their protection.

The children were living in Dundee with their father and 17-year-old brother, after the father had taken them all out of France while exercising contact rights with the younger children after the parents’ divorce.

The mother turned to the Court of Session to seek an order for the return of the three children under 16 under the Child Abduction and Custody Act, and won an order for their return after her worldwide search for the missing youngsters paid off when she recognised her daughter’s picture on a Dundee school pupil’s internet blog.

The court heard that following acrimonious divorce and custody proceedings in the French courts in 2002, an order was made that the three youngest children were to live with their mother, while the oldest son should stay with his father.

But in July 2005, the man disappeared with the children and they started a new life in Dundee. Criminal charges were also brought against the father in France after the children’s removal, he was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment in his absence and extradition proceedings have begun.

Yesterday Lord Osborne upheld Lord Turnbull’s original decision, rejecting points made by the father’s legal team, but ruled it would not be appropriate for the children to be immediately returned to France as an interim measure, as that would have amounted to a compromise of the issues raised in the case.

He said, “Nevertheless we considered it was appropriate to take some action.

“We have pronounced an interlocutor requesting Dundee City Council to supervise the children at their present place of residence and, if so advised, make an application to the Sheriff relating to their protection, if they consider that appropriate in any circumstances.”

He also ordered the issue of expenses incurred by the curator ad litem, appointed by the appeal court to investigate the children’s circumstances, and whose report did not support the father’s reclaiming motion, to be addressed.