In the UK a child is taken by a parent or family member every 12 hours. Thats exactly what happened to Craig Michael when his wife Marta abducted their daughter Crystal and brought her back to her native homeland of Poland. The rest sounds a lot like the movie, Taken.
After 2 years and £35,000 of trying his luck through the Polish courts, he turned to another option: Child Abduction Recovery International (Cari) and a British Special Forces vet named Adam Whittington. He had this to say:
“Parental child abduction is at epidemic proportions. It is crazily out of control. Most of our clients come to us, as Craig did, after they have done everything legally possible. They hit a brick wall. It leaves absolutely no choice to parents.”
[revad1]
He has rescued 100 children in 50 countries.
Once on the case a problem arises, the Polish government can’t locate Crystal. So they have only one option: A stake-out outside Marta’s parents home where they believe her to be.
After months of close calls they get their chance. Whittington springs into action under the cover of nightfall, snatches back Crystal and wards off her grandfather with pepper spray.
It should be noted that this is all 100% legal.
Within 5 hours Crystal was reunited with her sister Cassie in the UK.
This case is still far from over legally but for now the family is safe and together.
Michael, Whittington and Crystal:
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From the Daily Express:
The sound of a screaming child is heard over grainy footage of an empty people carrier. Moments later, a man jumps into the back seat firmly holding a crying little girl. He is trying unsuccessfully to comfort her, saying: “Good girl, good girl”. They speed off.
This isn’t a dramatisation, however. It is footage of a British man “kidnapping” his own daughter from Poland, as seen in a new ITV documentary, Abducted. The narrator explains: “Britons are more frequently finding partners from abroad but when things break down, it can get messy.”
This is an understatement. In the UK every 12 hours a child is taken by a parent or family member and this film shows what happens when a parent, in most cases the father, tries to retrieve their child from an estranged partner who has fled abroad.
Read more at the Daily Express
Would you do the same thing Craig Michael did? Should the practice be legal? Let us know in the comments below!
