An Alaska father was sentenced to federal prison for kidnapping and 'hiding' his two children after a family trip to the Philippines, DOJ says

• An Alaska man was sentenced to time in prison for abducting his own children, the DOJ said.
• Leo James Chaplin kidnapped his children during a family trip to the Philippines in 2014.
• He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars with an additional one year of supervised release.

An Alaska man was sentenced to over a year in prison for abducting his own children during a family trip in 2014, according to a press release from the Department of Justice Friday.

Leo James Chaplin,62, was sentenced to 18 months, with an additional 19 days, and a year of supervised release. He was arrested in 2019 and transported back to the United States for trial, the DOJ said.

Chaplin was charged with international kidnapping in January after he kept his two children in the Philippines for more than four years "with intent to obstruct their mother's exercise of lawful parental rights," according to the DOJ.

According to a 2017 criminal complaint, the mother was only able to see her children two times in the Philippines. The press release said the children were safely returned to their mother.

Acting US. Attorney Bryan Wilson called the case "a strong reminder that there are severe consequences for any parent who kidnaps their children," according to the press release.

"Abducting young children and hiding them in a foreign country will not be tolerated and we will seek justice for those torn apart," Wilson said. "The years of separation are lost forever, and the resulting emotional tragedy is unimaginable."