ALONE IN the tiny room in Budapest that is now his home, Leslie Shaw is preparing for a second Christmas without his nine-year-old daughter Fiona.
Almost two years ago, Fiona’s Hungarian mother took her to her homeland and refused to return with her to France, where the couple had lived before their divorce. After defying French and Hungarian court orders giving Dr Shaw full custody of Fiona, her mother disappeared with the girl in July, just hours before Dr Shaw arrived to try and take Fiona back.
Mother and daughter are now missing. What marks out Fiona’s plight are the allegations made by her mother against her father: Dr Shaw’s ex-wife accuses him of sexually abusing his daughter, despite several courts in France and Hungary throwing out her claims.
The case also highlights the apparent impotence of EU law in ensuring court decisions in one member state are enforceable in all others. Dr Shaw believes Hungarian police are doing little to find Fiona, and lambasts the failure of Irish diplomats in Budapest and Dublin to defend the rights of his daughter and himself – both of whom are Irish citizens.
Dr Shaw has taken a sabbatical from his college in Paris to live in Budapest and press police and diplomatic authorities to find Fiona. The €35,000-a-year business school lecturer is now living on €15 a day and doing odd jobs to pay for board and lodging.
He says he is heavily in debt after spending €70,000 trying to secure the return of his daughter, and alleges he was swindled out of €7,000 by a policeman who claimed he could find her.
“It’s my duty as a father to extricate Fiona from this intolerable situation and restore her to a normal life. This is severe psychological abuse of a child – and it is even worse because it is being perpetrated by her own mother.”
Dr Shaw has written several times to the Taoiseach and senior officials for help, and watched in despair as Ireland’s leaders worked themselves into a frenzy over Thierry Henry’s handball, but stayed silent about his case.
“Hungary is in breach of EU regulations in Fiona’s case. I am asking for Ireland’s support in taking it to the European Court of Human Rights,” he said.
Noel Ahern is one of the few politicians to take a public interest. “Leslie’s played it by the book, he’s followed the legal process, and all the Hungarian and French court decisions are in his favour,” Mr Ahern said.
“So it is very disappointing that the Hungarian system hasn’t delivered a positive result: the return of Fiona.”
Hungarian police officials insist they are working to find Fiona and her mother, and are in contact with French authorities. They say Irish diplomats have not approached them over the case.