The child had disappeared in Valle d’Aosta: the person who took the 5-year-old child away was his mother, a 29-year-old from Gambia, who lives in a shelter for women with problems. Mother and son were found in the Cuneo area.
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The police said they had the five-year-old boy was found who had been taken away by his mother on Thursday Aosta, during a meeting authorized by the Turin juvenile court. Mother and son were in Barge, in the Cuneo area, and he was identified by agents of the Aosta Flying Squad, in collaboration with that of Cuneo, coordinated in the searches by the Aosta Prosecutor’s Office.
The discovery was confirmed by the aunt, originally from Châtillon: “He is dazed, but happy. When he saw me he hugged me tightly, telling me that his mother had taken him away”, she adds. Regarding the escape, “the child said he took buses and trains” together with his mother to get away from the center of Aosta, where Thursday’s meeting took place. “Today – adds the aunt – he is our shadow”.
The alarm on Thursday was given by the aunt herself. “We are desperate, baby he doesn’t want to be with his mother. We tried to leave him alone with her, but he cried and wanted to leave. We cannot understand how all this could have happened and above all how it is possible that no one witnessed the escape” he told La Stampa.
Abducts 5-year-old son after protected encounter, mother wanted: child had been entrusted to his aunt and uncle since 2023
It is assumed that the woman had the objective of arrive in France passing first through Turin.
Twice a week – says the aunt – once at the Châtillon Counseling Centre, a second time in Aosta, we accompanied Muhammed to the meeting with his mother who lives in a shelter for women with problems in Aosta. We dropped him off at 11.30am and returned to pick him up at 2.30pm. The meeting had to take place in the presence of an educator. Thursday, when we arrived at 2.30pm, mother and child were no longer there. The educator told us that they were coming, they had gone out for a moment. And instead they never saw each other again.”
The child will turn 5 in August. The father is found in Africa: “We don’t know where he is and who knows where my brother-in-law is in Turin”, says the aunt again. “There was also a social shelter for two weeks, our nephew needed care, he was… neglected, in short”.
Since the end of March 2023, Muhammed’s case has been followed by a multidisciplinary team made up of an educator, social worker, psychologist and intercultural mediator, mandated by the Juvenile Court. About two months ago the judges decided to place the child with his maternal uncles and activate him protected visits without suspending the mother’s parental responsibility, the regional health department announced.
According to the regional health department “the abduction of the minor it did not occur during a protected encounter, but of a free meeting between mother and child, in compliance with what was established by the Court. The department hopes that the child will be found quickly, in the best interests of the child’s well-being and serenity.”
