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Transcript
Gerry
Well in terms of the abduction of a foreign child in a
foreign country is really very rare. The only case like this
is certainly in British children, the only one we know of is
Ben Needham, which was in 1991. So, thats sixteen years ago.
So, that aspect is incredibly rare and speaking to people in
Portugal and Spain, there not aware of any other EU
Nationals having children abducted on the Iberian
Peninsula.And you think about the tens and millions of
tourists that come to Spain and Portugal every year. So,
this really was a bolt out of the blue. Um in terms of whats
happened to us, I think also the circumstances of a child
being abducted from a bedroom are pretty rare as well.
I think what we definately want to do is continue awareness
inEurope you know Southern Europe iberian Peninsula.
Kate
There are a few people who have said to us you know, too
much publicity might not be good because somebody , whoevers
got her might keep her hidden and obviously everything we
are doing at the minute has a slight risk to it...which is a
horrible situation to be in when you are dealing with your
daughter, but over all we felt rather thnt sit back and do
nothing , this was the way to go.
Gerry
We've done a lot of things on our own and clearly theres
mixed signals from what could be done in terms of the North
American experience.
Kate
Certainly, what Gerry learnt from (inaudible) washington was
by having an image out there was definately the right thing
to do. One in six children that are recovered is because
somebody recognised them from a poster and the laws in the
States are very different to here and again well ahead of
the game...they've got their Amber Alert...you know within
two hours of a child being taken a police report has to be
filed....you know and um obviously the response time in
Europe has to be quicker . it has to be quicker.
Gerry
But the problem is that and this applies to the child
pornography laws as well, is that if you make regulation
tight in one country, the perpetrators dont know any
bounderies and they move to a country where legislation is
less tight. So, you might be exporting your problem and um
why it has to happen , international dimention and thats why
the laws need tightening up not just in the UK and U.S. or
anywhere else its where children can be abused or likely to
be abused.
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