A weekly newspaper has launched a campaign to help a local dad get his two abducted sons back home.

The Milton Keynes Citizen decided to support Ken Spooner whose two young boys were taken to Zambia by their mother in October 2008.

It launched the ‘Justice for Ken’ campaign to help him in getting Devlan, three, and Caelan, five, back home and is urging the British Government to intervene in the case.

The High Court has ruled that the boys are wards of the court and that they should return to this country for their future to be decided.

Ken, who has spent £200,000 on his bid to be reunited with his sons, had hoped the Zambian Supreme Court would recognise the English High Court order which he obtained after the kidnapping.

But the Zambian Supreme Court ruled that the English order was inadmissible and that Ken should have applied for a similar order in Zambia, meaning he is now back to square one.

Ken, of Great Linford, near Milton Keynes, has now been forced to move all his possessions into storage and launch a desperate search for sponsors to help pay for his case.

And the British Government has said it can do nothing to help him, aside from providing consular assistance.

Deputy editor Craig Lewis said: “We have been following the case for the last three months, but decided to act after the Zambian Supreme Court dismissed the English Order.

“Thus, we launched our ‘Justice for Ken’ campaign last week. Since then the issue has been raised in the House of Commons by local MP Mark Lancaster and we have launched a petition asking the British Government to intervene.”

The newspaper said in an editorial: “There is no doubt about right or wrong in this case. Ken’s two boys were snatched from him through a lie. They were taken to a foreign country thousands of miles from their home on the whim of their mother.

“Yet our government, Ken’s government, stands idle and wrings its hands after one of its citizen’s spent £200,000 of his own money over 21 long months trying to get his babies back.

“For the British Government the most important thing is that it seemingly does not hurt the feelings of a foreign state. A foreign state which has ignored the legitimate ruling of the English High Court.

“The new coalition needs to do the right thing and lobby the Zambian government to send young Devlan and Caelan home. It is the right thing to do.”