Outrage as 117 children – some still in nappies – separated from parents during New Year celebrations:
‘Heartbreaking scene’ at Humewood
GOOD Samaritans have lashed out at callous parents after witnessing heartbreaking scenes at a Bay police station filled with more than 100 abandoned and distressed children. The commander of Humewood police station SAID yesterday that 117 children had been processed at the station on New Year’s Day.
Michelle Watridge, 29, said she found it shocking that children as young as one, who were in nappies, could go unaccounted for.
Watridge, of Sherwood, herself a mother of children aged four and 21 months, went to visit children at the police station and gave them necessities, such as nappies and wipes.
Last year Watridge read about the plight of abandoned children on Facebook and made a conscious decision to assist in whatever way she could.
“I would say the children I saw were between the ages of one and seven.
“Some were happy and smiling while others were crying because they knew what was happening. How can children go missing? This is so heartbreaking. I only managed to stay at the station for 15 minutes because I could not stomach what I saw.”
A 43-year-old man, who asked not to be named, said he was appalled by some parents’ flippant attitude when they went to collect their offspring from the police. “Some of the parents actually told police, ‘this is your job [looking after abandoned children]’.”
He said most of the parents who collected their children were intoxicated. The man and his girlfriend took two small children who arrived at the station “at midnight” to their home.
“The shocking thing is their parents were not looking for them.”
They took the children back to the police station yesterday morning.
Brigadier Ronald Koll said although parents would not be charged, there was one questionable incident involving an 11-month-old child being abandoned and taken to the station.
Police were looking at the details surrounding how the 11-month-old ended up at the station.