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AN AMERICAN soldier has gone to war with his estranged Scots wife in a bid to win back their little daughter.

Sergeant Jeff Chafin's four-year-old girl is with her mum in Lanarkshire after a US judge ruled that she should live in Scotland.

The mum had claimed that Chafin wrongfully detained their daughter in the States after the bitter collapse of their marriage.

But Chafin says the girl has spent 33 months of her life outside Scotland. He insists her real home is with him - 4000 miles away in Alabama.

And he has vowed to take his campaign for custody all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington.

Afghan war veteran Chafin, a bomb disposal expert, said he was given just 20 minutes to say goodbye to his daughter after a judge ruled against him.

He added: "I've been in some scary situations with my job, but I'd take defusing a bomb any day over that.

"I'm still in shock at the ruling. It was the worst day of my life."

Chafin, 41, says his estranged wife had a drink problem and threatened him with a knife, and he fears for his daughter's safety in Scotland.

But a friend of the 34-year-old mum claimed Chafin was trying to "get back at her" but she would not comment "in the interests of her daughter".

Chafin met his Scots bride, who we have chosen not to name, on a dating site in 2005. They married the next year at Culcreuch Castle Hotel near Fintry, Stirlingshire, and set up home at his barracks in Germany.

Their daughter was born in January 2007. But just eight months later, Chafin was sent to Afghanistan for 15 months and his wife returned to Scotland.

He said: "I'm not going to lie, we were having issues. She was in a foreign country alone with a baby and we were still getting to know each other.

"We decided the best thing would be for her to move back to Scotland to be closer to her mom and dad."

When Chafin got leave, he flew to Glasgow to see his family.

After his Afghan tour, he was told he was being posted to the US state of Alabama. His wife returned to Germany, and after three months they decided to move to the US together.

They bought a home in the small town of Huntsville. Chafin said: "She wanted a house with a swimming pool and that's what I bought her."

But the mum often flew back to Scotland, sometimes taking her daughter. And by last year, the marriage was collapsing.

Chafin said: "Living apart had been stressful and the alcohol was becoming an issue.

"She started going out and getting drunk and then got arrested. Sometimes she would be gone all night and I had no idea where she was until the police called."

On December 14, the mum was arrested for being drunk and was accused of assaulting a cab driver.

And Chafin says that 10 days later, he woke to find her standing over him with a knife, saying he wasn't getting out of the bedroom alive. He says he barricaded himself in their daughter's room as his wife stabbed at the door.

Chafin dialled 911 and the mum was arrested. She had applied for a Green Card, but police learned she had been living in the States on a 90-day tourist visa and took steps to deport her.

The mum spent two months in a detention centre before deportation.

And days after her return to Scotland, she filed a case under the Hague Convention, a global treaty which deals with cases of "international child abduction". The mum claimed the child's true home was in Scotland and Chafin had no right to keep her in America. She said she had kept a rented flat in her homeland when she moved to the US.

The US authorities gave the mum permission to return to fight her case. And last month, a federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, found in her favour.

Judge Inge Johnson said there was no evidence the mum had done anything to harm her child, She dismissed Chafin's claims that his wife had become a violent drunk.

Chafin says he got just 20 minutes to say his goodbyes. He told us: " My daughter hadn't seen her mom for 10 months, and I had to try and explain to her that she was going to Scotland to see her cousins and her grandparents.

"She was asking why I wasn't coming and I was doing everything not to break down. Her mom was standing there and she had to say goodbye to my whole family who had come with me to court. "She left with nothing but the clothes on her back.

"My daughter has an American accent. Her home is in America, not Scotland. I can't understand how the judge could think otherwise."

Chafin says he has only been able to speak to his daughter a couple of times since she left. He has received an email telling him she is now at school.

He says he hopes to fly over to see her in the next few months. But he admits his situation is a warning to couples from different nations who have kids.

Chafin has filed for divorce, and lodged an appeal in federal court against Judge Johnson's ruling.

If the appeal fails, he will take his case to the Supreme Court.

But he says he is close to bankruptcy because of legal fees, and his mum Sharon fears the stress of the case is taking its toll.

She said: "Jeff has been in some very scary situations, yet I have never seen him break down the way he did when he had to say goodbye to his little girl.

"He comes home every night alone and sits in her bedroom surrounded by all her toys and clothes.

"I think he's coping well, but the only thing that keeps him going is being with his daughter.

"My fear is suicide. If he doesn't have his daughter, what does he have left?"