Yesterday evening, Friday 7 Maythe Aosta Flying Squadwith the collaboration of that of Cuneo, tracked down the woman who the day before, Thursday 6 May, after a meeting with her younger son she had fled with him, losing track of herself.
Mother and son found each other in the province of Cuneo, in Barge. The minor, who is well, he was brought back to Valle d’Aosta. This was communicated in a note by the Aosta Police Headquarters.
The investigations, also starting from telephone cells connected by the mother’s phone, they allowed the woman to be located in the Cuneo area. It was therefore activated by the Aosta Police Headquarters Cuneo Flying Squad who, once in Barge, found mother and child in a club.
The Aosta Mobile agents, together with the child’s aunt, after reaching the Piedmontese town, undertook the return journey towards the Valley. Towards the mother, There are currently no restrictive or precautionary measures. The investigative activity now continues to delve deeper into the exact contours of what happened. The woman risks being sued for not having respected the terms of the visit established by the Court.
by Luca Ventrice
June 7, 2024
At the end of the meeting, when a child of almost five years old had to be returned to his maternal uncles, with whom he has been placed since April last year, the mother did not show up for the appointment. The search for the woman and the child, both Gambian citizens, is therefore underway by the Police, under the coordination of the Aosta Prosecutor’s Office.
The meeting was scheduled for late yesterday morning, Thursday 6 June, in the center of Aosta. It was expected to last about three hours, but in the early afternoon, upon the return of the relatives (with whom the child has lived for more than a year) and the educator, there was no trace of the mother.
The child had been removed from his parent, and was then entrusted to the local social service, then placed with his maternal uncles (even though the mother did not lose parental rights). The meeting, authorized by the Juvenile Court, was scheduled took place with the presence of the educator at the beginning and end of the coursebut the woman would have taken advantage of it and it is not excluded that she had the aim of going abroad.
The words of the Health Department
In an evening note, the Health Department explains: “Starting from the end of March 2023, the situation is followed by ateam multidisciplinary (educator, social worker, psychologist and intercultural mediator) upon mandate from the Juvenile Court. In April 2023 the Court ruled the placement of the child with the maternal uncles and the activation of protected visits and did not provide for the suspension of parental responsibility for the mother”.
“Starting from March 2024 – we read again -, the Juvenile Court has ordered a gradual liberalization of meetings between the minor and the mother. As part of this latest provision of the Juvenile Court, the meetings were currently accompanied by an educator both at the beginning and at the end of the same”.
“I am therefore the news that appeared in the press was inaccurate – closes the note -, as on the one hand the uncles they were not custodians of the childbut the same was placed with them, and on the other as the abduction of the minor did not occur during a protected meeting, but a free meeting between mother and son, in compliance with what was established by the Court”.
Finally, “the Department hopes a quick discovery of the childin the superior interest of the well-being and serenity of the child”.
The words of the mother’s lawyer
In a letter sent to the editorial staff in the evening, the lawyer Carola Marzithe mother’s lawyer, reiterates the words of the Health Department and explains: “The mother, therefore, has never been declared lapsed by parental responsibility, nor was the child ever entrusted to his aunt and uncle, who played the role of simple placement agents (assignment and placement have two clearly distinct legal meanings). The Juvenile Court then ordered that one be carried out evaluation of the mother’s parenting capacity and that protected mother-child meeting methods be activated.”
And he adds: “One was appointed for this purpose team multidisciplinary, made up of a social worker, a psychologist and an educator, as well as an intercultural mediator, in order to facilitate exchanges of information. At the end of the evaluation period, the mother was suitable for her parental role and the Juvenile Court then authorized it
the Social Services to provide for a gradual expansion and liberalization of mother-child visits. The visits, therefore, at the time of the events narrated, they were no longer protected, but freewith provision for the presence of the educator only and exclusively at the moment of the passage of the child from the uncles to the mother and vice versa, a delicate moment, which still presented some critical issues”.
“There is no intention to discuss with the press the reasons for these difficulties, nor the removal carried out yesterday by the mother: there is a Court that is aware of the facts, which will be responsible for evaluating what has happened in recent months (and not a single behavior, which is completely detached from the context) and make decisions”, concludes the lawyer.
