SYRACUSE, NY—United States Attorney
Richard S. Hartunian announced that Jeffrey Shipman, 52, formerly of Liverpool,
New York, entered a guilty plea to day before Hon. Norman A. Mordue to a
federal indictment charging him with international parental kidnapping. By his
plea, Shipman admitted that on July 12, 2007, he left the United States with
his then 3-year-old daughter, flying from JFK Airport in New York City to
London-Heathrow Airport, with the intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of the
mother’s parental rights. Shipman further admitted that he kept the child outside
the United States for the next four-and-a-half years, traveling from England to
Germany, France, and Thailand. He ultimately turned himself and the child in to
authorities in Bangkok, Thailand, in March of this year. The child, now 9 years
old, has been reunited with her mother.
The crime of international parental
kidnapping carries a maximum sentence of 36 months’ imprisonment and up to one
year of supervised release. Shipman and the United States Attorney’s Office
have agreed on a binding sentence of 30 months’ imprisonment and one year
supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for January 4, 2013.
Shipman’s arrest was the result of an
investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Onondaga County
Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Marshals Service. Shipman is being
prosecuted by AUSA Lisa Fletcher, Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the
Northern District of New York.
Launched in May 2006 by the Department
of Justice and led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal
Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe
Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate,
apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as to
identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood,
please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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