US trio face extradition over alleged child kidnap plot

Jennifer Amnott, Valerie Hayes and Gary Reburn wanted the UK Supreme Court to consider their case after losing an extradition appeal in the Scottish courts

Three Americans facing trial over a kidnap and murder plot have lost their latest attempt to avoid extradition from Scotland.

The US authorities say Valerie Hayes, Gary Reburn and Jennifer Amnott conspired to abduct five children and kill their parents in Dayton, Virginia.

The plot was foiled in 2018 and the three were later traced in Glasgow and taken into custody.

The Supreme Court has now refused to hear their appeal against extradition.

Judges at the UK's highest court ruled the trio had not raised an arguable point of law.

In January, judges at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected an extradition appeal bid by the three US citizens.

BBC Scotland understands lawyers for the Americans now hope to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

American investigators say Valerie Hayes, 40, and her boyfriend Gary Reburn, 58, informed Jennifer Amnott that their three children had been "captured" by two families in West Virginia.

They are alleged to have told Ms Amnott that if she and her husband Frank helped recover them, she could keep one of the families' other children.

According to the FBI and the local sheriff's department, the plan was to break into the families' homes, take the children and murder the parents so there would be no witnesses.

They tried to enact the plot but the alarm was raised and no-one was hurt.

Ms Amnott's husband Frank admitted conspiracy to kidnap in Virginia in December 2019

Frank Amnott was captured at the scene and later received a mandatory life sentence for conspiracy to kidnap and to kill witnesses.

The Americans say Ms Hayes, Mr Reburn and Ms Amnott fled to Scotland to evade justice.

They have claimed their human rights would be breached if they were sent back to the US and given life sentences without parole.

After Frank Amnott was sentenced in 2019, United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen said: "Although the facts of this case read like the script of a bad horror movie, the defendants' murderous plot was real and it posed a grave risk to their intended victims."