Today's Paper » NATIONAL
Published:
August 24, 2012 00:00 IST | Updated: August 24, 2012 05:07 IST TIRUPATI, August 24, 2012 Child-lifter gang busted, 3 children rescued
Brought to
book:Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) J. Prabhakara Rao producing
child-lifters at a media conference in Tirupati on Thursday. —Photo: K.V.
Poornachandra Kumar
In a major breakthrough, the sleuths of the Tirupati Urban Police
District on Thursday nabbed a three-member gang and rescued three children who
were allegedly lifted from different places in Tirupati during the last 18
months.
Of the babies rescued, two were females.
According to the police, the modus operandi of the trio was to
hang around the railway station, TTD choultries, temples, etc. where the pilgrim
movement was heavy, kidnap the children and sell them away in the villages
around Narasaraopet where the trio reportedly hail from.
The operation of the gang came to light when the police team
pressed in to service to crack the child-lifting cases, picked up Devara Kotaiah
(50) when he was found standing under suspicious circumstances with a small girl
at the Tiruchanur-Renigunta bus stopping here on Thursday.
During interrogation, he spilled the beans and said that he had
lifted the baby 14 months ago from the TTD’s Vishnu Nivasam complex here and
that two of his accomplices—Lakshmaiah and Kunchala Padmavathi — also were in
the town at another location.
Police raided the place and rescued a girl whom the trio allegedly
kidnapped 18 months ago from the railway station and a boy taken eight months
ago from near the Govindarajaswamy temple here.
The gang was also said to have confessed to the police that they
could not sell the babies in their village.
According to a release issued by the Superintendent, Tirupati
Urban Police District, J. Prabhakar Rao, who pressed the crack-team into
service, the trio also confessed that they could not sell the babies as they
could not get an ‘attractive price’.
The SP said that efforts would be made to trace the parents of the
babies or hand over the babies to the Government ‘Children’s Home’ here. The
police team was led by Tirumala DSP, Nanjundappa.
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On This Day: Lindbergh Baby Kidnapped
by findingDulcinea Staff
On March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of the
famed aviator, was stolen from his crib. After a national search, the child was
found dead.
Lindbergh Baby Stolen From Crib
Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. was the first child of
celebrity couple Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly alone across the
Atlantic Ocean, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, herself an accomplished aviator.
On March 1, 1932, nurse Betty Gow put 20-month-old Charlie to bed at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, N.J.; when she went to check on him at about 10:00 p.m., she discovered that the crib was empty.
Charles Lindbergh recalled his reaction when he saw his son was missing: “I went upstairs to the child's nursery, opened the door, and immediately noticed a lifted window. A strange-looking envelope lay on the sill. I looked at the crib. It was empty. I ran downstairs, grabbed my rifle, and went out into the night.”
Lindbergh could not find the intruder or his son. When he opened the envelope, he found a ransom note reading:
“Dear Sir,
Have 50,000$ redy 25000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$ bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills. After 2-4 days will inform you were to deliver the Mony.
We warn you for making anyding public or for notify the Polise the child is in gut care.
Indication for all letters are singnature and 3 holds.”
Local and state police were called to the home. They found muddy footprints and a ladder used to gain access to the nursery. However, the footprints could not be measured, and there were no fingerprints in the room.
“Instantly an impregnable wall of interrogation, prying eyes and blue steel was thrown around New Jersey's borders as city police and State troopers of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania began stopping cars at all bridgeheads, ferries, and at the mouth of the sub-Hudson Holland Tunnel,” wrote Time. “By morning a gigantic posse of police, troopers, U S. Department of Justice operatives, Coast Guardsmen, American Legionaries, Quiet Birdmen, civilians was combing an area from Boston to Baltimore. There had never been such an intensive search party since Booth shot Lincoln.”
On March 1, 1932, nurse Betty Gow put 20-month-old Charlie to bed at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, N.J.; when she went to check on him at about 10:00 p.m., she discovered that the crib was empty.
Charles Lindbergh recalled his reaction when he saw his son was missing: “I went upstairs to the child's nursery, opened the door, and immediately noticed a lifted window. A strange-looking envelope lay on the sill. I looked at the crib. It was empty. I ran downstairs, grabbed my rifle, and went out into the night.”
Lindbergh could not find the intruder or his son. When he opened the envelope, he found a ransom note reading:
“Dear Sir,
Have 50,000$ redy 25000$ in 20$ bills 15000$ in 10$ bills and 10000$ in 5$ bills. After 2-4 days will inform you were to deliver the Mony.
We warn you for making anyding public or for notify the Polise the child is in gut care.
Indication for all letters are singnature and 3 holds.”
Local and state police were called to the home. They found muddy footprints and a ladder used to gain access to the nursery. However, the footprints could not be measured, and there were no fingerprints in the room.
“Instantly an impregnable wall of interrogation, prying eyes and blue steel was thrown around New Jersey's borders as city police and State troopers of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania began stopping cars at all bridgeheads, ferries, and at the mouth of the sub-Hudson Holland Tunnel,” wrote Time. “By morning a gigantic posse of police, troopers, U S. Department of Justice operatives, Coast Guardsmen, American Legionaries, Quiet Birdmen, civilians was combing an area from Boston to Baltimore. There had never been such an intensive search party since Booth shot Lincoln.”
The Search for the Lindbergh Baby
The Lindberghs engaged in negotiations with the kidnapper through John F.
Condon, a 72-year-old retired teacher from the Bronx who offered to act as
an intermediary. Condon and the kidnapper communicated using messages in the
newspaper and notes delivered by strangers.
On March 12, Condon met with the kidnapper, who identified himself only as “John,” in a Bronx cemetery. Condon asked for proof that the kidnapper had young Lindbergh; he received the child’s pajamas in the mail days later.
On April 2, Condon again met the kidnapper and delivered a $50,000 ransom. The kidnapper said the child was on a boat in Martha’s Vineyard, but a search of the boat turned up empty.
On May 12, the body of a toddler was discovered on the side of a highway several miles from the Lindbergh home; the body was identified as Charles Jr. a day later. The toddler had been dead for about two months, having been killed by a blow to the head.
On March 12, Condon met with the kidnapper, who identified himself only as “John,” in a Bronx cemetery. Condon asked for proof that the kidnapper had young Lindbergh; he received the child’s pajamas in the mail days later.
On April 2, Condon again met the kidnapper and delivered a $50,000 ransom. The kidnapper said the child was on a boat in Martha’s Vineyard, but a search of the boat turned up empty.
On May 12, the body of a toddler was discovered on the side of a highway several miles from the Lindbergh home; the body was identified as Charles Jr. a day later. The toddler had been dead for about two months, having been killed by a blow to the head.
The Investigation and Trial
The FBI became involved in a national search for the kidnapper. The authorities tracked
the ransom money by using the serial numbers on the bills. In September 1934,
police arrested Bruno Hauptmann, a German immigrant, after discovering that he
was in possession of about $14,000 of the ransom money. Hauptmann claimed that
he had received the money from a friend who had since passed away, but he was
indicted in October 1934 for the child’s murder.
Hauptmann’s trial, dubbed the “Trial of the Century,” attracted more than 60,000 “reporters, novelists, movie stars, and society matrons” to the small town of Flemington, N.J., when it began on Jan. 2, 1935, according to PBS.
The prosecution presented the fact that Condon’s number was found written on the wall of Hauptmann’s apartment and contended that Hauptmann’s broken English accounted for the numerous misspellings in the ransom notes. The most important witness was Condon, who testified that he believed that “John” was Hauptmann.
At the conclusion of the one-month trial, the jury found Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder. He was executed on April 3, 1936.
Hauptmann’s trial, dubbed the “Trial of the Century,” attracted more than 60,000 “reporters, novelists, movie stars, and society matrons” to the small town of Flemington, N.J., when it began on Jan. 2, 1935, according to PBS.
The prosecution presented the fact that Condon’s number was found written on the wall of Hauptmann’s apartment and contended that Hauptmann’s broken English accounted for the numerous misspellings in the ransom notes. The most important witness was Condon, who testified that he believed that “John” was Hauptmann.
At the conclusion of the one-month trial, the jury found Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder. He was executed on April 3, 1936.
Biography: Charles Lindbergh
Charles
Lindbergh became the first person to fly a plane non-stop across the
Atlantic on May 20, 1927, when he flew “The Spirit of St. Louis” from New York
to Paris. After the ordeal of his son’s kidnapping, he and his wife moved to
Europe to escape the press coverage.
After accepting an award from Nazi leader Hermann Goering, Lindbergh drew criticism for being a Nazi sympathizer. Nevertheless, he worked with American aviation companies during World War II and participated in bombing raids against the Japanese.
After the war Lindbergh worked with the Air Force and Army Air Corps as a consultant. He also became a passionate environmentalist. He died in August 1974 of lymphoma.
After the death of Charles Jr., Lindbergh and his wife had another five children together. In 2003, it was revealed that Lindbergh had also fathered five children with two German sisters, Brigitte and Marietta Hesshaimer. A 2005 book alleged that he had two other children with a German secretary, raising his total number of children to 13.
After accepting an award from Nazi leader Hermann Goering, Lindbergh drew criticism for being a Nazi sympathizer. Nevertheless, he worked with American aviation companies during World War II and participated in bombing raids against the Japanese.
After the war Lindbergh worked with the Air Force and Army Air Corps as a consultant. He also became a passionate environmentalist. He died in August 1974 of lymphoma.
After the death of Charles Jr., Lindbergh and his wife had another five children together. In 2003, it was revealed that Lindbergh had also fathered five children with two German sisters, Brigitte and Marietta Hesshaimer. A 2005 book alleged that he had two other children with a German secretary, raising his total number of children to 13.
_______________________________________
N.B. For reasons of privacy this report is not available for viewing
outside Australia. Viewers within Australia will be able to catch the story on
iView until June
19.Mother of two Regan Haight was married and living contentedly in mid-west USA until she returned home one day to find her children and her Japanese-born husband gone. They’d gone to Japan and they weren’t coming back. Regan Haight soon discovered that in Japan a combination of law and custom were heavily stacked against her. The system was on the side of her kidnapper husband.
What could she do? Would she ever see her children again?
Living in Japan, Australian Chayne Inaba has been battling the system to try to get access to his daughter Ai and has tried to negotiate with his wife and her family but to no avail. In fact Chayne was beaten to a pulp in his own home and he has his strong suspicions about who was responsible and the message they were trying to send. He now stays a safe distance away from the house that’s now home to his daughter and former partner.
“There’d be major problems (if I went to the house). I would say the police would be involved, a lot of nasty things would happen.” CHAYNE INABA - Left-Behind Parent
Japan has long resisted signing up to the Hague Convention that sets out the rules for these cases and while there’s been intense international pressure to sign and Japan has said it will, none of the so-called left-behind parents are holding their breath. And the courts aren’t prepared to break the mould either.
“Who wants to be the first judge to order a crying child to be taken away from a crying Japanese mother and given back and sent overseas? Nobody.” PROFESSOR COLIN JONES - Law Expert
Foreign Correspondent’s Mark Willacy investigates the heartbreaking cases of the mums and dads trapped in a Kafkaesque hell, unable to see their children, stymied by a system on the side of the child snatcher. There’s Craig Morrey, left to care for his profoundly disabled son after his pregnant wife left him. He first saw his daughter fleetingly in a court-room when she was 6 months old. And there’s Alex Kahney who’s broke and is now packing his bags to return to Britain after 19 years, leaving behind everything he cares about – his two little daughters kidnapped by their Japanese mother.
‘I thought she can’t kidnap my kid, I’ll just go to the police. The first 2 or 3 months I was shattered, the first 6 months I was numb. I’ve been disowned. I might as well be a ghost.” ALEX KAHNEY – Left Behind Parent
And what of American mum Regan Haight? Well she hired a former British SAS officer and took matters into her own hands.
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Murder of Adam Walsh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Adam Walsh, see Adam Walsh (disambiguation).
| Adam Walsh | |
|---|---|
 Adam Walsh, son of America's Most Wanted host John Walsh c.1981 | |
| Born | November 14, 1974 Hollywood, Florida, United States |
| Died | July 27, 1981 (aged 6) Hollywood, Florida, United States |
Convicted serial killer Ottis Toole confessed to the boy's murder but was never tried for the crime due to loss of evidence and a recanted confession. Although no new evidence has come forth, on December 16, 2008, police announced that the Walsh case was now closed as they were satisfied that Toole was the murderer. Toole died of liver failure on September 15, 1996.[3]
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Kidnapping
On July 27, 1981, Walsh's mother, Revé, let Adam watch several older boys play video games at a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida, while she walked a few aisles away to shop for a lamp. When Revé returned to the video game section about seven minutes later, Adam and the other boys were gone. As the result of a squabble between the older boys, a security guard had been called and had told them to leave the store.[4] Of the three other boys, two were black and the other was white. The security guard asked the older boys if their parents were in the store, and the boys said that they were not.[4] It was later conjectured by Adam's parents that he was too shy to speak to the security officer, who presumed that he was in the company of the other white boy, and put him out the same door. Adam was then left alone near an exit of Sears that was unfamiliar to him.[4][5]Adam's severed head was found by two fishermen in a Vero Beach, Florida, canal on August 10, 1981. The rest of his body were not recovered.[3] The coroner ruled that the cause of Adam's death was asphyxiation and that the decapitation had occurred later, perhaps to render his remains unidentifiable or the cause of his death indeterminable.[citation needed]
Police eventually concluded that Adam was abducted by a drifter named Ottis Toole near the front exterior of the Sears store that afternoon, after being asked to leave by a store clerk. Toole lured Adam into his Cadillac with promises of toys and candy, then proceeded to drive north on Interstate 95 toward his home in Jacksonville. Adam, at first docile and compliant, began to cry and scream as the drive wore on. Toole responded by knocking Adam out with blows to the head and chest (and likely strangled him), then pulled off onto a deserted service road in Indian River County to decapitate the boy. Toole later claimed to have disposed of Adam's body by incinerating it in an old refrigerator when he returned to Jacksonville. Since Toole was a cannibal, there were reports that he dismembered the young boy's body and consumed it, but those reports were later ruled out.[citation needed]
[edit] Aftermath
Adam's kidnapping and murder prompted John Walsh to become an advocate for victims rights and helped to spur the formation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). As a result of his advocacy, he was approached to host the television program America's Most Wanted.[citation needed]The Code Adam program for helping lost children in department stores is named in Walsh's memory.[citation needed] The U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act on July 25, 2006, and President Bush signed it into law on July 27, 2006. The signing ceremony took place on the South Lawn of the White House, attended by John and Revé Walsh. The bill institutes a national database of convicted child molesters, and increases penalties for sexual and violent offenses against children.[6] It also creates a RICO cause of action for child predators and those who conspire with them.[7]
[edit] Suspects
- John Walsh himself was considered by authorities as a prime suspect as the police investigation started to become exhausted. After about a week, he was later absolved of any foul play following a highly emotional press statement that was televised nationally.[citation needed]
- Jeffrey Dahmer, arrested in Wisconsin in 1991 after killing more than a dozen men and boys, was also named as a suspect in the Walsh murder. Some have suggested a Dahmer link to the case for many years, but the allegations earned widespread publicity only in early 2007. Dahmer was living in Miami Beach at the time Adam was murdered, and two eyewitnesses placed Dahmer at the shopping mall on the day Adam was abducted. One of the witnesses claimed to have seen a strange man walking into the Sears toy department where Adam was abducted. The other said that he saw a young, blond man with a protruding chin throw a struggling child into a blue van and speed off. Both witnesses recognized the man they had seen as Dahmer when pictures of him were released in the newspapers after his arrest. Recent reports have also shown that the delivery shop where Dahmer worked had a blue van at the time. Dahmer preyed on young men and boys (the youngest being eight years older than Adam), and his modus operandi included severing his victims' heads. Since this rumor surfaced, John Walsh has said that he has "seen no evidence linking his son's unsolved kidnapping and slaying to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer."[8]
- Ottis Toole repeatedly confessed and then retracted accounts of his involvement. Toole, allegedly a confidante of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, was never charged in the Walsh case, even though he provided seemingly accurate descriptions as to how he committed the crime. Several witnesses also place Toole in the Hollywood area in the days leading up to Walsh's disappearance. Police investigated Toole for the Walsh murder but lost important evidence in the case, including the bloodstained carpet from Toole's Cadillac.[3] In September 1996, Toole died in prison, aged 49, of cirrhosis of the liver while serving a life sentence for other crimes.[4] Afterwards, Toole's niece told John Walsh that her uncle made a deathbed confession to the murder of Adam.[4][9] Toole's confession, however, had been viewed as reliable, since he and Henry Lucas confessed to or implicated themselves in more than 200 different homicides, most of which they accurately described details only the culprit would know.[10]
[edit] Case closed in 2008
Although no new evidence was presented, on December 16, 2008, the Hollywood,
Florida, Police Chief Chad Wagner announced, with John Walsh present, that the
case was now closed. An external review of the case had been conducted and
police announced that they were satisfied that Ottis Toole was the murderer.[3][10][12]
________________________________
Child abduction
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term child abduction confounds two legal and social categories which differ by their perpetrating contexts: abduction by members of the child's family or abduction by strangers:
- Parental child abduction: a family relative's (usually parent's) unauthorized custody of a child without parental agreement and contrary to family law ruling, which largely removes the child from care, access and contact of the other parent and family side. Occurring around parental separation or divorce, such parental or familial child abduction may include parental alienation, a form of child abuse seeking to disconnect a child from targeted parent and denigrated side of family.
- Abduction or kidnapping by
strangers (from outside the family, natural or legal guardians) who steal a
child for criminal purposes which may include:
- extortion, to elicit a ransom from the guardians for the child's return
- illegal adoption, a stranger steals a child with the intent to rear the child as their own or to sell to a prospective adoptive parent
- human trafficking, a stranger steals a child with the intent to exploit the child themselves or by trade in a list of possible abuses including slavery, forced labor, sexual abuse, or even illegal organ trading
- murder
Abductions by strangers
The stereotypical version of child abduction by a stranger is the classic form of "kidnapping," exemplified by the Lindbergh kidnapping, in which the child is detained, transported some distance, held for ransom or with intent to keep the child permanently. These instances are, however, rare.[1]
[edit] Child abduction for ransom: United States
The earliest nationally publicised kidnapping of a child by a stranger for the purpose of extracting a ransom payment from the parents was the Pool case of 1819, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland. Margaret Pool, 20-months-old, was kidnapped on May 20 by Nancy Gamble (19-years-old) and secreted with the assistance of Marie Thomas. On May 22, the parents, James and Mary Pool, placed an ad in the Baltimore Patriot newspaper offering a $20 reward for Mary’s return. When the child was recovered on May 23—through the efforts of members of the community who conducted a search—it was revealed that the child had been badly whipped by Gamble and bore bloody wounds. Both Gamble and Thomas were tried for the crime of kidnapping and found guilty. The motive for the crime was demonstrated to be financial. She had kidnapped the child with the intention of waiting for a reward to be offered, then would return the child and collect the money. This is a technique favored by many ransom child kidnappers before the use of written ransom demands became the favored method. Nancy Gamble's crime and subsequent trial were reported in detail in Baltimore Patriot (June 26, 1819). The June 26 article, as well as others on the case that had appeared in the Patriot, were reprinted in newspapers in other states including: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington D.C.
[edit] Children abducted for slavery
Main article: Child slaveryThere are reports that abduction of children to be used or sold as slaves is common in parts of Africa.
The Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda, is notorious for its abductions of children for use as child soldiers or sex slaves. According to the Sudan Tribune, as of 2005, more than 30,000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA and their leader, Joseph Kony .[1]
[edit] By stranger to raise
A very small number of abductions result in most cases from women who kidnap babies (or other young children) to bring up as their own. These women are often unable to have children of their own, or have miscarried, and seek to satisfy their unmet psychological need by abducting a child rather than by adopting. The crime is often premeditated, with the woman often simulating pregnancy to reduce suspicion when a baby suddenly appears in the household.
Some other abductions have been to make children available by child-selling for adoption by other people, often unwittingly on the part of the new parents.
[edit] Parental child abduction
Main article: Parental child abductionBy far the most common kind of child abduction is parental child abduction (200,000 in 2010 alone)[2] and often occurs when the parents separate or begin divorce proceedings. A parent may remove or retain the child from the other seeking to gain an advantage in expected or pending child-custody proceedings or because that parent fears losing the child in those expected or pending child-custody proceedings; a parent may refuse to return a child at the end of an access visit or may flee with the child to prevent an access visit or fear of domestic violence and abuse. One recommended child recovery company is ABP World Group Ltd.
Parental child abductions may be within the same city, within the state region or within the same country, or may be international. Studies performed for the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that in 1999, 53% percent of family abducted children were gone less than one week, and 21% were gone one month or more.[3]
[edit] International Child abduction
Main article: International child abductionInternational child abduction occurs when a parent, relative or acquaintance of a child leaves the country with the child or children in violation of a custody decree or visitation order. Another related situation is retention where children are taken on an alleged vacation to a foreign country and are not returned.
While the number of cases which is over 600,000 a year consists of international child abduction is small in comparison to domestic cases, they are often the most difficult to resolve due to the involvement of conflicting international jurisdictions. Two-thirds of international parental abduction cases involve mothers who often allege domestic violence. Even when there is a treaty agreement for the return of a child, the court may be reluctant to return the child if the return could result in the permanent separation of the child from their primary caregiver. This could occur if the abducting parent faced criminal prosecution or deportation by returning to the child's home country.
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international human rights treaty and legal mechanism to recover children abducted to another country. The Hague Convention does not provide relief in many cases resulting in some parents hiring private parties to recover their children. Covert recovery was first made public when Don Feeney, a former Delta Commando, responded to a desperate mother's plea to locate and recover her daughter from Jordan in the 1980s. Feeney successfully located and returned the child. A movie and book about Feeney's exploits lead to other desperate parents seeking him out for recovery services.[4]
By 2007, both the United States, European authorities, and NGO's had begun serious interest in the use of mediation as a means by which some international child abduction cases may be resolved. The primary focus was on Hague Cases. Development of mediation in Hague cases, suitable for such an approach, had been tested and reported by REUNITE,[5] a London Based NGO which provides support in international child abduction cases, as successful. Their reported success lead to the first international training for cross-border mediation in 2008, sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.[6] Held at the University of Miami School of Law, Lawyers, Judges, and certified mediators interested in international child abduction cases, attended.
International child abduction is not new. A case of international child abduction has been documented aboard the Titanic. However, the incidence of international child abduction continues to increase due to the ease of international travel, increase in bi-cultural marriages and a high divorce rate. Parental abduction has been defined as child abuse[7]
[edit] Organizations
Organizations have set up websites where users can go to gain knowledge or contribute help to stopping child abduction. Among these are the organizations: Association For The Recovery Of Children or ARC, Enough is Enough and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which have partnered with the online community, Abducted Angels in the UK, Myspace to help keep the internet a safe place for children.One well known child recovery company is ABP World Group Ltd.
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A-Z Index of Topics
PDF)
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Outcry after child abduction case is dropped
TWO women at the centre of an investigation
into an alleged child abduction will not face charges — news which has prompted
one mother on a Barnstaple housing estate to describe police as "a total waste
of time."
The women, aged 26 and 27, were arrested on
suspicion of attempted child abduction in Barnstaple last week after a public
outcry from residents of the Forches estate.
But after an investigation by police it has
been decided they haven't committed any crime.
The women had initially been dispersed from
the area last Friday, after approaching two children and asking for directions
while drunk.
But with residents unhappy with that action
a meeting was arranged by angry residents who planned to confront the women.
As a result of the publicity aroused by
that action further complaints were made to police alleging two further
attempted abductions by the pair. The pair were then arrested and interviewed
before being bailed and barred from entering Barnstaple. But after extensive
enquiries officers investigating the alleged incident confirmed the two women
had committed no offences and said no further action will be taken.
And when the mother of one of the young
girls who was approached was told this news she said she was disgusted.
The woman, who hasn't been named to protect
the identity of her daughter, said: "I don't even think they investigated it
properly.
"The police should have taken it more
seriously. They came and did a video statement with my daughter but that was
it.
"I'm worried these women could go and do
the same thing somewhere else and maybe next time they'll go one step
closer."
But North and West Devon Police Chief
Inspector Toby Davies said the case had been thoroughly investigated and the
women had been found not to have committed any crime.
He said: "We have to reassure people we've
thoroughly investigated three separate reports the women had approached young
children in the Barnstaple area.
"There was not a shred of evidence to
suggest there was any attempt to abduct a child but the women have received the
strongest words of advice about their conduct from us and if they were to do
something similar we'd take a very dim view of it.
Mr Davies said the investigation had
involved the use of specialist officers to conduct interviews with the children,
reviewing CCTV and obtaining witness statements from witnesses as well as
arresting and interviewing two suspects.
He also said the women are believed to have
left the area.
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