An Irishman who is being sought by police in the US in connection with the disappearance of his grandson from his home in America has defended his decision to bring the 10-year-old boy back Co Cork. Barry Roche reports.
It was born out of a desire to do what was best for the boy, he said.
The man - who is in his late 50s - said that he and his wife had brought back their grandson from Winthrop Harbor, near Chicago, where the boy lived with the man's Irish-born daughter who is now married there.
"What I did, I did out of love - he had an awful life over there," said the man who, together with his wife, raised the boy for the first five years of his life before he went to live with his mother in America, where he has spent the past five years with five other siblings.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the grandparents were visiting their daughter when they asked to take the boy out to lunch last Thursday. When they failed to return with the boy, she alerted Winthrop Harbor Police Department, which launched an investigation.
Police Chief Joel Brumlik told the Chicago Tribune that a Lake County judge had issued arrest warrants for the Irish grandparents for the aggravated kidnapping of their grandson and had set bail in the event of their arrest at $2 million.
Mr Brumlik said the FBI must obtain federal warrants to arrest the couple in Ireland or retrieve the child, and that the police authorities had a general idea where the child was likely to be.
Gardaí confirmed yesterday they had received a request from Winthrop Harbor Police Department - through Interpol - to establish the whereabouts of the child and if he was safe and well. They did this on Saturday when they visited the grandparents in their Co Cork home.
"We are satisfied that the boy is unharmed and is being well looked after and we have no concerns about his safety or well-being," said a Garda spokesman. However, gardaí said they had received no details regarding arrest warrants being issued in America for the couple and they were awaiting further instructions.
It is understood the boy's grandparents obtained an order in the Irish courts in 2001, granting them custody.
Gardaí were shown court documents when they called to the house on Saturday confirming they were granted custody by an Irish court.
However it is understood that the boy's mother had earlier obtained an order in a US court granting her custody and it is on foot of this order that she is claiming that the boy has been abducted by her parents and brought back to Ireland.
Reports from the US say the boy's mother told police that on their visit her parents were very upset that her son had a military-style haircut and had taken the surname of his adopted father, who works with the US navy. The boy was shortly to become a US citizen along with three siblings, who were also born in Ireland. The mother is quoted as saying she had very little contact with her parents in her adult life but had allowed them to visit their grandson last week for compassionate reasons.
She said her first husband, who was Irish, died when her son was two weeks old.