Police are making inquiries into a possible child abduction after a 31-year-old Devonshire woman is believed to have left the Island over the weekend with her son, despite the father being named as his legal guardian by the courts.

According to the child's father, Giovanni Burrows, five-year-old Jasai boarded a flight for Atlanta on Saturday with his mother, Kim Sakena Swan, without the father's knowledge.

While he would not divulge any particulars, Police spokesman Dwayne Caines confirmed that Police were looking into the matter of a child being taken from Bermuda's shores without proper permission.

Mr. Burrows said although he knew nothing about the trip he suspected something was amiss last Friday when Jasai's grandmother picked him up for a weekend visit with his mother.

"Usually she (Ms Swan) comes for him herself, but she didn't this time," Mr. Burrows told The Royal Gazette. "She (Ms Swan's mother) said they were going to a family dinner that night, but I think it was a send-off for Kim."

Mr. Burrows said as soon as his son left, he called Immigration and asked if the boy could be put on the stop list because a "gut feeling" told him Ms Swan was planning to go away.

"But they told me they could not do that unless I filed an injunction.

"Because it was so late on a Friday afternoon, I figured I would have to wait until Monday," he said.

But Monday was too late, according to Mr. Burrows. When he went to pick up his son at his school, he was told that he had not been dropped off by his mother that day.

Soon after, Mr. Burrows said, he was informed by the Department of Family Services that Ms Swan departed the Island with Jasai.

The Royal Gazette understands Ms Swan listed her intended destination as Stone Mountain, Georgia on her Immigration departure card.

"I was crushed. My insides felt like they were being turned inside out," Mr. Burrows said of his feelings when he heard the news.

The single father said he immediately called her mother, Orilene, but he said Mrs. Swan told him she knew nothing and had not seen her daughter since Friday evening.

"I didn't even know she was going away," Mrs. Swan told this paper, when contacted. "And I assume that she is coming back."

Mr. Burrows said he also contacted the Police and American officials who are looking into the matter.

Amid rumours that Ms Swan was due to return to the Island yesterday, Mr. Burrows said he did not believe she was coming home anytime soon, as she had recently sold her nearly-new jeep for only $10,000. In recent months, she had been suspended from her job.

"She really does not have much to lose," he said.

Mr. Burrows expressed his disappointment with Bermuda's Family Court, saying while he and Ms Swan had been before a judge at least 15 times in the last few years, she had contravened with every court order placed before her.

"And still she got away with slaps on the wrist. That's why she's not afraid to continually breach them."

However, Mr. Burrows said at this point, all he wants to do is focus on seeing his son again.

"That's the only thing that's keeping me sane right now. Getting my son back."

And a family member of Ms Swan believes Mr. Burrows will get his wish.

"Kim will come back. She has no American ties. We are a very close family and I think she would miss us," said the woman, who spoke to The Royal Gazette on the condition on anonymity. "I think that she is at the point where she realises there are going to be consequences but I feel right now she is a desperate mother who wants to spend time with her child.

"I think she left with the intention that 'I'll deal with the consequences when I get back'," the woman said.

The woman remained adamant that Ms Swan's mother and immediate family had no knowledge of what she was going to do.

"They never dreamed she would do this. If anybody would have known what her intentions were, they would have tried to talk her out of it," she said.

But, she said, the family was growing tired of the ongoing, and often public battle between the two parents.

"I wish it would end. It's getting old and tired. The family has had enough."