I FEAR I’LL NEVER SEE MY BOY AGAIN
Runaway mother’s agony as she hands son, 3, to his dad
RUNAWAY mother Rebecca Minnock fears she may have lost her three-year-old son for ever.
After being forced to hand Ethan to his father, she tearfully asked: ‘Am I going to be allowed to see him again? That is my biggest fear – not seeing him again.’
The 35-year-old surrendered to police after conversations with the Daily Mail at the end of 17 days on the run from the authorities.
Today she will face her former partner Roger Williams, 39, in court for a custody hearing.
Her last words to Ethan before he was taken away on Saturday were: ‘I will go home and I will feed your fish for you and I promise I will see you soon.’ The parting had left him ‘very upset’.
Miss Minnock told the Mail that going into Ethan’s empty bedroom was devastating.
‘I could see his huge inflatable dolphin in there,’ she said. ‘And I just remembered him on that. I could not look in there. I closed his door and went back downstairs. He has chucked all his books across his bedroom floor. Everything is there from the morning we left.’
Miss Minnock, whose mother Louise, 52, was jailed for ten days on Friday for lying about her and Ethan’s whereabouts, said: ‘I just feel like this is not real, it’s a weird feeling. It’s like it’s still not happening.
‘It’s always been just us two, for a long time. Every day we were with each other, so for that just to be gone all of a sudden means I don’t know how I’m going to feel.’
She added: ‘Ethan’s just an amazing boy, a happy, funny character. And he is very loving,
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affectionate and gentle, and very chatty. He literally doesn’t stop talking, he’s just a joy.’
Miss Minnock fled with Ethan nearly three weeks ago following a court order that he should live with Mr Williams.
It was ruled that she was obstructing access to her son after she made ‘false’ allegations about his father.
Speaking of Saturday’s handover she said: ‘I tried to explain to him that he was going to see his dad, to reassure him.
‘He held my hand most of the journey and kept asking me to cuddle him but I could not because of the car seat he was in. He was quite upset – on and off – asking to go home. He wanted to see his nanna and the dog (Minnie) and his fish he wanted to feed as well.’
Once at the police station the pair were taken into an office and Ethan was allowed to watch his favourite children’s television programme on a computer.
‘I asked for some milk for Ethan. He had a little nap on me and a cuddle. And we waited for Roger to turn up,’ Miss Minnock said.
‘He clung on to me. He had his little hoodie on that he likes and wanted the hood over his face because it was really bright in his room. He was just asking to go home. I just tried to stay as calm as I could, for him, for his sake really. Just to reassure him that everything was going to be fine.’
But i nside she said she f elt ‘devastated – very stressed’.
Police officers waited for Mr Williams, who works in the nuclear power industry, to arrive and collect his son.
Miss Minnock said: ‘Roger pulled his car up to the exit of the police station and just went to take Ethan. I asked for a cuddle, and he gave me a hug, and then he went.’
She said encountering her former partner, with whom she has had a bitter custody battle, was extremely awkward and they avoided eye contact.
Miss Minnock said she was in floods of tears in the police car back to her home in Highbridge, Somerset, from which she and Ethan went missing on May 27. ‘Part of me was relieved to be going home,’ she said. ‘And then obviously I knew I would not be going back with Ethan. Worrying about what was going to be come out of this … when will I see him next. Will I be able to talk to him soon?
‘All his toys were still there where we left them. His blanket was still on the sofa from the morning that we left.’ Asked what was going through her mind, she said: ‘Panic that I am not going to see Ethan again. Wondering what is going to happen. When I am going to see him. Am I going to be allowed to see him again? That is my biggest fear. Not seeing him again.’
Speaking of today’s court hearing she said: ‘I’m hoping and praying still that the judge will possibly go through all the facts again and see if there’s a different outcome.
‘I feel guilty that other people have been pulled into this, my family, and I know what I have done is wrong. I have wasted an awful lot of police time. I’ve caused people to be really concerned about me.
‘I expected lots of police officers to arrive and actually arrest me, and to take Ethan instantly but t hey’ve done a brilliant j ob. They’ve been very supportive. They’ve helped me to do it in a way that would be suitable for Ethan, so he wasn’t disrupted or scared in any way, they were really helpful.
‘They were extremely sensitive – they did everything I asked really. They came in normal clothing so he wasn’t alarmed. They were lovely. They were chatting with him.’
On Friday night, Miss Minnock told the Daily Mail she had decided
‘I know what I’ve done is wrong’
to surrender to police, saying: feel that my time has run out.’
Moments before she gave herself her in at a location in Oxfordshire, she said tearfully: ‘I’ve heard today that my mum’s been taken to court and I know it’s not fair to Ethan to keep running with him. He needs to
‘I go home he needs his routine back.’ Mr Williams has told relatives that he is ‘mightily relieved’ to be reunited with his young son.
His father Tony, from Burnhamon-Sea, Somerset, said he spoke to him minutes after police told him Ethan was in their hands.
He said: ‘Roger said he was mightily relieved and that he was so pleased that the agony had come to an end. He said all he wanted to do was to see Ethan with his own eyes and hold him.
‘Roger got a call telling him Ethan had been found and he rushed over straight away to pick him up. Roger sounded the happiest he’d sounded for weeks. Now he’s going to keep Ethan out of the limelight for a few days. We’re all just glad this has come to a happy conclusion.’
The custody hearing is at Bristol Crown Court.