In the news 1960s/70s

[queencharlotte]

For many weeks in that decade there was an heart-rending newspaper and other media story about a British woman whose vengeful and estranged French husband had, by hoodwinking the authorities, spirited abroad their infant son. He took delight in declaring that she would never see the boy again until at least he reached adulthood and there was nothing she, or the British authorities, could do about it. I have often wondered what subseqeuntly happened.; With the passage of time I cannot remember the names of the couple involved, but I have an idea it was somethig like Desremoix and her name, maybe, Linda. Can anyone recall this case that dominated the news at the time?

[boxtops]

Yes - Linda Desramault, I remember it - it was her daughter, not her son, who was taken, described as one of the first tug-of-love baby kidnappings.

[Jemisa]

http://hansard.millba...0/caroline-desramault Media URL: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1972/nov/30/caroline-desramault
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[queencharlotte]

Thank you,Boxtops and Jemisa; now to try and find out what happened in this sad case.

[Isobelmac]

Caroline Desramault was the child's name. Her father, Rene Desramault repeatedly ignored court orders, including orders from the highest appeal court in France, to return her to her motherto her mother, Linda. In August 1972, a few days before Caroline was to be returned to her mother, Rene Desramault fled the French town of Lens, where he was living, and disappeared. He was eventually tracked down to Switzerland in September 1972, and the Swiss authorities placed Caroline in a children's home where she languished until a final and definitive ruling from the highest French court confirmed that she must be returned to her mother. Both parents took turns visiting Caroline in this children's home until March 1973, when the French ruling was recognised by the Swiss authorities. As luck would have it, Linda was actually at the children's home visiting Caroline when the court order came through. She immediately took her daughter to the airport and flew back to England before Rene could get to the children's home and try to stop her from leaving with Caroline. Linda subsequently divorced Rene - and some years later remarried - this time very happily. Rene, a bitter and vindictive man who used a helpless little girl as a pawn to punish her mother for daring to leave him, died some years later.