AN IRISH academic is poised to be reunited with his daughter four years after she was abducted by her mother, who has been arrested in a police raid in Hungary.
Leslie Shaw has been trying to regain custody of Fiona (10) since her Hungarian mother took her to her home village of Boconad in December 2007 and failed to return to France, where the three of them lived at the time.
Fiona’s mother, Krisztina Orosz, accused Dr Shaw of sexually abusing Fiona and refused to go back to France or comply with a French order to give him custody of their daughter.
Courts in France and Hungary rejected the allegations of abuse against Dr Shaw and in July the European Court of Human Rights found that Hungary had violated his right to family life by failing to return Fiona to him.
Armed officers from the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) – Hungary’s equivalent of the FBI – raided Ms Orosz’s home in Boconad on Wednesday and found her there with Fiona and her grandfather.
Fiona locked herself in the bathroom during the police operation, before being placed in the temporary care of a representative of the French embassy in Budapest and taken to a clinic for tests.
Dr Shaw flew to Budapest from Paris, where he teaches at a business college. But his first encounter with his daughter in four years reinforced fears about the impact of her ordeal, during which he says Fiona has not attended school and has been “brainwashed” by her mother.
“I always thought she would run into my arms, but she recoiled from me in horror,” said Dr Shaw, who briefly saw Fiona as she was taken into a Budapest clinic.
“I could see in her eyes that she was terrified and traumatised. This shows the extent to which she has been brainwashed by her mother, who has taught her that I and all my relatives are evil.”
Dr Shaw said he would not try to see his daughter again until she felt stronger. Fiona’s cousin hoped to visit her in hospital last night.
Ms Orosz was yesterday remanded in pre-extradition custody. She plans to appeal the ruling, but if it is unsuccessful she is expected to be extradited to France within 40 days.
Ms Orosz was previously arrested in 2009, but quickly released by a judge who refused to enforce the European warrant because a Hungarian court case was also pending against her.
The day after she was freed, Ms Orosz and Fiona disappeared from Boconad and their whereabouts were unknown for two years. Hungarian police and officials insist they did their utmost to find them, but Dr Shaw complained of “a complete lack of action” from Hungarian authorities until the NNI began investigating six months ago.
“I hold the republic of Hungary fully responsible for the condition my daughter is in, through their refusal to return her promptly to France subsequent to her abduction in December 2007.”
He thanked the NNI for “locating Fiona and extracting her in an extremely professional manner from this nightmarish family environment” and hailed French embassy staff in Budapest for “their unswerving and determined efforts”.