Missing girl, 13, ‘taken to Poland’
‘Serena left the UK on a Eurotunnel train’
A SCHOOL GIRL who went missing on Friday is believed to have been taken to Poland by a friend of her mother.
The disappearance of Serena Alexander-Benson sparked a police manhunt when she failed to turn up at her private school and was later spotted boarding a eurotunnel train at Folkestone with an older woman.
But yesterday officers disclosed that they believe the 13-year-old is in Poland, where her Polish-born mother Sylvie Alexander-Benson, 53, returned after a bitter divorce from her daughter’s father about three years ago.
Serena’s father Gavin Benson, 48, last saw his daughter early on Friday when she left the family home in Wimbledon, south-west London, wearing her uniform. When she did not arrive at the £12,000-a-year Holy Cross School in nearby New Malden, Mr Benson, a senior management consultant, reported her missing.
Police yesterday said they believed the woman spotted with Serena at the eurotunnel terminal in Kent was a Polish national living in London, a friend of Serena’s mother, who then drove the teenager to Poland.
The Met Police also said they were working with the National Crime Agency, which tackles serious and organised crime, and Polish authorities to establish Serena’s whereabouts before considering whether any crimes have been committed.
Mrs Alexander-Benson is registered as a director at a foreign language school in south-west Poland, according to government records.
Serena’s disappearance comes after her parents’ marriage came to a bitter end. Neighbours reported hearing rows coming from the family home at the time.
The Met Police said: ‘inquiries have established Serena left the UK at Folkestone on May 25 on a eurotunnel train. She was in a car with a female friend of her mother’s who is a Polish national who lives in London. Active lines of inquiry are being pursued by officers working with the National Crime Agency and Polish authorities.’
Andrea Lucas, acting headmistress of Holy Cross School, said: ‘The pupil and her family are in our thoughts and prayers.’
Mr Benson declined to comment.