The American police chief investigating the removal of an Irish-born child by his grandparents from his home in the US yesterday said he believed that the child did not want to return to Ireland but wanted to stay with his mother in Illinois.
Police Chief Joel Brumlik of Winthrop Harbour Police Department in Illinois confirmed state warrants had been issued for the arrest of Cobh couple Mr Timothy and Ms Ethel Blake over the removal of their nine-year-old grandson from the care of his mother, Ms Serena Benwell.
"We have obtained state warrants but we're still in the process of obtaining federal warrants for the arrest of the Blakes and that's being done by the FBI and they will be passed on through Interpol to the Irish police," he said.
Chief Brumlik confirmed to The Irish Times that the boy's mother had obtained a custody order in an American court but that it was obtained subsequent to an Irish court granting custody to the boy's grandparents in 2001.
"I have no doubt that the boy wants to stay with his mother - I've heard taped telephone conversations between the boy and his grandparents from two years ago where they asked him did he want to return to Ireland with them and he said he wanted to stay with his mother.
"He was seven years old at the time and you can hear them pleading with him to come to Ireland to them but he says 'No,' and he tells them that he wants to stay with his mother here in America," said Chief Brumlik.
"It's important to remember that these people are not the boy's parents, they're his grandparents," he added.
On Wednesday the boy's grand-aunt told Cork's 96FM that the boy used to tell his grandparents regularly on the phone that he wanted to return to Ireland to live with them as they had reared him for the first 4½ years of his life and he was happy with them.
