Kidnap boy’s father rejects debt claims
THE father of a Gold Coast schoolboy abducted in broad daylight believes the family was deliberately targeted because of their wealth, and denies owing the man now charged with kidnapping a cent.
The boy’s father, a Chinese businessman who flew back to the Gold Coast this week, spent several hours with detectives on Tuesday night and denied owing accused kidnapper Zheng Jie Zhang millions of dollars in gambling debts.
Zhang, who faces six charges including kidnapping, extortion and torture, is alleged to have twice made demands for a payment of 20 million Chinese yuan (more than $A4 million) in the weeks before the 12-year-old boy was dragged screaming into a black Jeep by two men outside a home near Somerset College in Mudgeeraba last Friday.
While police continue to search for Zhang’s alleged accomplice, the victim’s father has told detectives he believes the terrifying plot was motivated by the family’s wealth.
As well as owning a townhouse near the prestigious Somerset College, the family live in a sprawling canal-front mansion worth millions of dollars at Clear Island Waters.
“He believes they have been targeted because they are wealthy,” a source close to the investigation said.
Southport Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday that the boy identified Zhang to detectives as the two families were once friends living among the Gold Coast’s Chinese community.
Zhang’s relatives this week told The Gold Coast Bulletin he was “a good bloke who wouldn’t hurt a fly” but had fallen on hard times through problem gambling.
Police will allege Zhang made threats to the victim’s family in February and again in April, each time demanding $4 million. Police will allege Zhang took those threats to the next level last week, with others thought to be involved.
Detective Inspector Marc Hogan from Gold Coast Police has issued a public appeal for anyone with any information on the identity of a second person to come forward.
The plea has been repeated in Mandarin by officers of Chinese heritage in case the fugitive is being sheltered by Chinese communities interstate.
Police claim Zhang was waiting to meet another person from Sydney when he was arrested in Grafton with the 12-year-old boy bound and gagged in the back seat of a borrowed car.