Three ‘abducted’ siblings found by police
POLICE have rescued three children who were “parentally abducted” by their father a year ago after someone recognised the young family.
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POLICE tonight have rescued three children who had been “parentally abducted” by their father one year ago after someone in NSW recognised the young Queensland family.
Jessica, Levi and Blake Moore had not been seen by their mother for more than a year prompting her to take the matter to the authorities with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia last month issuing a “recovery order”.
The court heard they had allegedly been parentally abducted by their 40-year-old father Tobias ‘Toby’ Moore with no confirmed sighting of the children or him since at least May this year when they were seen in a blue Toyota Camry.
The recovery order effectively empowered police forces across the country to actively work to find the children and detain the father. The court then issued a rare publication order last week allowing the public revelation of the matter and issuing of photographs of the children, deeming there being little prospect of them being found without public help.
MORE: Police plea with public to help find kids missing for a year
Yesterday after the matter was published by News Corp Australia’s True Crime Australia website, 13-year-old Jessica and her brothers Levi, 12, and Blake who a week ago turned 11 were found in a joint AFP and NSW Police operation. Jessica was found late yesterday in Henty NSW and was immediately handed over to her mother leaving police to frantically spend the morning today piecing together their movements to find the boys. They were later found at a property in Cowra.
“NSW Police arrested a 40-year-old Queensland man on an outstanding New South Wales and Queensland arrest warrants for unrelated matters,” a spokeswoman from the AFP said last night. “It is anticipated that the man will appear before Bathurst Local Court tomorrow morning where the Queensland Police Service will seek the man’s extradition to Queensland.”
“The AFP would like to thank the public and media for their continued interest and support in the matter.”
After receiving details of the order, the Australian Federal Police late last week began an investigation beginning in and about Proserpine in North Queensland, the last confirmed sighting.
The family had originally lived in the Logan and Redland Bay region of Queensland but authorities suspected they had moved interstate and possibly NSW.
Since there are strict federal laws surrounding family law matters the AFP yesterday declined to comment about the case including what charges the father was facing.
But they said the investigation would look not just at his actions but those who had been or were assisting him.
“These abductions can often be traumatic for children at the time, and lead them to require significant assistance once they are recovered,” a spokesman said on Tuesday.
“Abducted children can suffer the loss of contact with their family and friends, miss out on their education and are often hidden away from people around them. They are removed from almost everything familiar to them including their toys, daily routine, their bedroom and sometimes even their name.”
The spokesman added: “In addition to breaching court orders issued under the Family Law Act, the abducting parent themselves may also be committing an offence against the law of a State or Territory. Anyone who is found to be providing support to an abducting parent may themselves be committing a serious offence.”
The court on Tuesday said less than a handful of recovery and publication orders were made in these sorts of matters.
“The Federal Circuit Court of Australia has issued a recovery order authorising all members of the Australian Federal Police and the State and Territory Police forces to recover Jessica, Levi and Blake and to return them to their mother,” a spokeswoman for the court said on Tuesday.
“The Court has also made a publication order to allow photographs and details of the children and their father to be published in the hope that a member of the public will come forward with information on their possible whereabouts.”
Originally published as Three ‘abducted’ siblings found by police