Crime & Courts

Anchorage man sentenced to prison for 2014 kidnapping of his children in Philippines

A 62-year-old Anchorage man was sentenced to 18 months and 19 days in federal prison for kidnapping his two young children in 2014 on a family vacation in the Philippines, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Leo James Chaplin abducted the children he shared with his then-spouse and kept them in the Philippines for more than 4 1/2 years, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which cited testimony during Chaplin’s trial. Both children were born in Anchorage and lived here until then.

Chaplin acted “in flagrant disregard of Alaska family court orders to return the children to Alaska,” federal prosecutors said. He was arrested in the Philippines and returned by U.S. marshals for prosecution in this country. The children were reunited with their mother.

Chaplin will be required to serve one year of supervised release once he leaves prison.

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