THE ADOPTIVE parents of Tristan Dowse, the four-year-old boy abandoned in an Indonesian orphanage three years ago, are to be hit with a maintenance order that could exceed €1m. The High Court case, which resumes next Thursday, is also expected to grant custody to the boy’s natural mother, Suranyi.

Rory Brady, the attorney-general, is taking the case against Joe and Lala Dowse, who live in Azerbaijan. It is expected the couple will have to pay maintenance costs to Tristan until he is 18. According to legal sources close to the case, the Dowses will be hit with “the upper maintenance limit” provided under the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act of 1976. The act also makes provisions for maintenance fees to include higher education costs, if the child wishes to go to university.

The costs of any proceedings under the maintenance act is at the discretion of the court, but lawyers expect the Dowses to be pursued for full recovery if the state is awarded its costs. The maintenance and custody order is one of a series of actions that the state is expected to take against the couple.

Legal sources suggest these will include orders on succession and citizenship. In order for the child to be returned to the mother, he must first be deregistered from the Irish adoption register.

It is understood an application being sought by the attorney-general compels the Dowses to pay for maintenance and expenses, possibly by means of an attachment to their earnings.

“This will be very similar to a divorce case,” said one lawyer. “Custody will be granted to the natural mother, and there will be orders on maintenance up to the age of 18.”

Brady, who announced proceedings against the couple last June, is acting in his constitutional capacity as guardian of the public interest and the rights of a citizen. He said he was seeking an order from the High Court to compel the Dowses to take care of the boy under constitutional provisions.

It was hoped the early action would prompt the Dowses to take legal action to deregister the adoption in Ireland, thereby freeing up the Irish and Indonesian authorities to find a solution to his status. In order for the Indonesian authorities to allow Tristan to be re-adopted or returned to his mother, Tristan’s name has to be removed from the Irish register of foreign adoptions.

Because he was born in Indonesia but has Irish citizenship, and following doubts about the legality of his adoption, the toddler has been in a legal limbo ever since Joe Dowse, an accountant from Wicklow, and Lala, a doctor from Azerbaijan, left him in an orphanage in Jakarta, saying the adoption was simply “not working out”. Shortly afterwards they moved to Azerbaijan.

The Dowses said the adoption, which the Indonesian authorities had claimed was illegal, was legitimate but that the couple had problems bonding with the child.

Many of the agencies who have been working on Tristan’s case believe it is in his best interests to return to his natural mother but say that his adoptive parents must pay for abandoning the boy.

“We would very much welcome Suranyi being granted custody by the Irish courts,” said Anton Sweeney of Adoption Ireland. “The Indonesian authorities have ordered the adoption illegal and the Irish adoption shouldn’t stand as it is. Tristan was abandoned and the least his adoptive parents should be doing is paying compensation to Tristan’s mother for his upkeep and well-being.”

Tristan was reunited with his mother last September for the first time since his birth. Ahead of the reunion, Suranyi claimed she was tricked into giving him away. The woman who handled the supposed adoption in Indonesia has faced child trafficking charges.

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