That was my initial reaction. I certainly could not imagine a situation in which I would voluntarily abandon my children to their father so that I could go and live in another country. But I then began to wonder if there's more at play here - physical and emotional abuse, for example, can make even the most devoted of mothers do things that they ordinarily might not do.

I am trying to remember that we only have the parts of the story a) the mother and b) the Beeb want us to actually read.