Mum’s terror as girl, 5, ‘snatched’ from holiday club
‘I thought my daughter was dead’
A SCOTTISH nurse is suing Thomas Cook after claiming her five-year-old daughter was abducted from a children’s club while on holiday in Turkey.
Janet Alexander, 46, said her daughter Rose was taken from the supervised hotel play area by a woman wearing a hijab.
Miss Alexander, a senior charge nurse with NHS Highland, said she left the youngster to take her elder daughter Lois, nine, to a scuba-diving lesson – but when she returned an hour later, Rose was not there.
The single mother of two, from Inverness, says staff had not realised the girl was missing. Rose, who told her mother she was invited to ‘go for a walk’, was found with a woman 400 yards from the hotel about 20 minutes after Miss Alexander raised the alarm.
Another British guest at the hotel had found her following a chance encounter with the family the previous night.
Miss Alexander is now suing travel agent Thomas Cook for a five-figure sum, claiming the firm failed to take her complaint seriously.
Police in Turkey allegedly told her they could not take any action as her daughter had been returned unharmed. But Miss Alexander, from Inverness, who has been unable to work since the ordeal at the Royal Wings Hotel in Antalya in April, said: ‘This has been the most traumatic experience of my life. I thought my daughter was dead or faced being trafficked and abused.
‘People need to realise these staff-led play groups aren’t the safe places we believe them to be. I’ll never trust Thomas Cook again.’
Rose told her mother she thought her alleged abductor was a staff member as she was already inside the play area. The British hotel guest who found Rose had been walking along the main road when he spotted her with a ‘hijabwearing woman’.
When he saw Miss Alexander telling hotel staff about the incident, he went back to find her and returned to the hotel with the woman and Rose.
Miss Alexander said staff spoke to the mystery woman in Turkish. But when they failed to answer any of Miss Alexander’s questions, she took her daughters to the local police station. With the help of an on-duty interpreter, officers said they could not look into the matter as Rose had not been harmed and was returned safely.
The incident was reported to Thomas Cook’s hotel rep but the tour operator has not responded after nearly two months.
Miss Alexander says she is suffering from extreme anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
She said: ‘No matter how much I process things it just leaves me in pieces. I’ve been shaking and in tears ever since it happened – I even struggle to leave the kids at school now. My work, neighbours, family and friends have all been really supportive.
‘And even though they couldn’t do anything, the Turkish police were kind and sympathetic.
‘But Thomas Cook have been a disgrace – they haven’t apologised and have actually gone to great lengths to ignore me.
‘What happened has changed our whole way of living and without even an apology, it’s like I can’t get closure and don’t know how to heal.’
Miss Alexander has now launched a civil claim and hopes the outcome will lead to improved safety standards. Simon Richards, of Digby Brown Solicitors which is pursuing the case, said: ‘Janet and her loved ones understandably feel traumatised by this incident.
‘Thankfully Rose was safely reunited with her family but her abduction had a very serious and lasting detrimental impact. The case is ongoing so it would be inappropriate to comment further.’
Thomas Cook said its customer welfare team was offering support to Miss Alexander. A spokesman said: ‘We are extremely concerned to hear of this incident. We can only imagine how distressing it must have been.
‘We have launched a thorough investigation to understand how this happened and we will work with the hotel to ensure it cannot happen again.’