A Dublin man is due in court in Britain today charged with abduction of a teenage girl, John Maher reports. Mr Wally Bowens (36) was arrested by police in Chester on Tuesday.
Police had been looking for Mr Bowens and Julie Moore (14) from Blanchardstown, after gardai were alerted to her disappearance from her family home a month ago.
Chester police said yesterday that Mr Bowens was charged at the police station and would appear in Chester Magistrate's Court this morning.
The charge sheet said "that Mr Bowens at Chester, without lawful authority, detained a child under the age of 16 years, so as to keep her out of the lawful control of any person entitled to the lawful control of said child, contrary to section 2 (1)(a) of the Child Abduction Act 1994."
Her father, George, travelled to Chester yesterday and gave a statement to police. The two were due to return to Dublin last night.
Ms Moore had left her family in Blanchardstown a month ago. Her parents knew of her relationship with Mr Bowens, a barman who is married with two children.
Mrs Valerie Moore said yesterday that she had spoken to Mr Bowens and expressed her concerns about his relationship with her daughter. She told RTE radio that her daughter had been a difficult child; she had been expelled from school and had left home before. "He has stolen her, he has disrupted my family," she said of Mr Bowens.
She added that Julie had telephoned home and said she was in love with Mr Bowens.
The case featured on the Crimeline television programme on Monday night, but it appears the Garda did not originally circulate details of the case as a "missing person" investigation on the basis that Ms Moore had left home voluntarily. However details were later circulated to British police.
It was reported yesterday that the pair had applied to the social services in Chester for emergency accommodation, but the Garda could not confirm if this led to their discovery.