Mother seeks return of daughter from Poland

A Scottish mother is pleading for the return of her four year-old daughter after her father secretly took her to Poland.

The 32 year-old woman from Kirkcaldy in Fife, just north of Edinburgh, reported the girl missing in late June. She expected to meet up with the child’s Polish father after their daughter had spent one day with him. However, nobody showed up at the agreed-upon meeting point.

Speaking to STV News, the mother and her new partner said they believed another child’s passport was used to get the girl into Poland. They also believed the Police were not taking the case seriously enough. The case was being treated as a missing person case rather than a child abduction, they claimed.

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But a police spokesperson stated they had conducted a “robust investigation and liaised with a number of agencies to establish [the child’s] whereabouts”.  After contacting authorities in Poland, the girl was “located and found to be safe”.

Unfortunately for the mother, how long the child will remain there is still unclear as they have yet to secure her return to Scotland. She told STV News she “can’t even imagine life without her [daughter]” and pleaded for her return, insisting that “nothing else matters”.

Meanwhile, her partner claimed they “need somebody to be accountable for what’s going on” and accused the Scottish Police of “passing the buck”.

Back in 2014, the Law Commission declared that the laws surrounding child abduction in England and Wales needed reform. They recommended closing legal loopholes and increasing the punishment for those found guilty.