Gang f led to Scotland af ter ‘plotting to steal 5 children and murder their parents’

US fugitives in ‘extraordinary’ crime spree lose extradition fight

‘Holding the father at gunpoint’

THREE Americans facing trial for ‘extraordinary’ crimes in their homeland have lost an appeal against their extradition from Scotland.

Jennifer Amnott, Valerie Hayes and Gary Reburn are accused of conspiring to kidnap children and kill witnesses in a case which could result in life sentences.

The five children they planned to abduct were all under the age of eight and lived in a Mennonite community in West Virginia.

The trio lost a legal battle at Edinburgh Sheriff Court over moves to return them to the US but appealed to the High Court.

Scotland’s most senior judge, the Lord Justice General, Lord Carloway, said: ‘The crimes, which the appellants have allegedly committed, are extraordinary.

‘All of the appellants are citizens of the United States of America. Mrs Amnott and her husband met Mrs Hayes in 2015. Mr Reburn was Mrs Hayes’s then boyfriend. The Amnotts were desperate to start a family.

‘Mrs Hayes said that she had three children who had been “captured” and were in the custody of two families in West Virginia. She told the Amnotts that if they helped her to recover her children they (the Amnotts) could keep one of those families’ other children.’

‘The appellants and Mr Amnott formed a plan which involved travelling from Maryland to conduct prolonged and sophisticated surveillance on houses where the two families lived, the organisation of transport and the obtaining of firearms.

‘They planned to achieve armed entry to the house, the securing of the children and the murdering of the parents by shooting them. The plan was put into action.’

In his judgment Lord Carloway described how, on July 29, 2018, the group entered a house in the rural setting of Dayton while the family were in church.

When they returned that night two of them were armed. The group forced entry and secured the father in the basement.

The mother managed to escape and called the police. When officers arrived, only Frank Amnott was still in the house, along with the father and his children.

Lord Carloway said: ‘He was holding the father at gunpoint. He was arrested. The others had left and, within days, fled to Scotland.’

A court in Virginia issued warrants for their arrest in 2019.

The trio claimed that a potential mandatory life sentence without parole for a lesser crime than murder amounted to a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) under an article preventing inhumane and degrading treatment.

It was argued that it was a grossly disproportionate punishment which was not capable of being reduced.

Lord Carloway, who heard the appeal with Lords Pentland and Matthews, said: ‘It is not possible to conclude that a life sentence without parole is grossly disproportionate, for the purposes of triggering a breach of Article 3 (of the ECHR), given the extreme gravity of the crime’s charges.

‘If proved, this was a premeditated conspiracy to kidnap five children and to murder their four parents. The plan had passed the preparation phase and had entered that of perpetration when the police arrived.’

Although whole life terms are not considered appropriate in Scotland, they are permitted in England and Wales and are seen as being ECHR compliant provided there is a possibility of review and prospect of release.

Prisoners in the US can be released through compassionate grounds and executive clemency.

Lord Carloway said: ‘It should require some obvious and serious form of ill-treatment to bar the extradition to a country such as the United States for the crimes of conspiracy to murder parents and steal their children.’

Reburn, a 58-year-old former high school lacrosse coach, is said to be a father of eight. Hayes, 40, is said to have claimed she worked for the US government in a clandestine intelligence capacity.

Prosecutors have said her claims that she worked for the government and that her children were kidnapped are false.

The Amnotts are said to have been lured by the prospect of finally having children after seeing multiple pregnancies end in miscarriages.