Search squads, a police helicopter and forensics but no missing child
POLICE last night launched a largescale child abduction investigation at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds, despite receiving no reports of a missing youngster.
Surrey Police committed teams of officers, made television appeals and even sent up the force helicopter – at a cost of around £1,000 per hour – after a witness came forward claiming to have seen a child being taken into the back of a van in Redhill on Thursday afternoon.
The scene was taped off and forensic specialists wearing protective clothing scoured the area. Hours after the initial reports, the investigation’s two main pieces of evidence were discounted.
Officers insisted the witness was “credible” and said they were taking the report “very seriously”, despite the fact nobody had come forward to report a young child missing.
The member of the public told police they believed they had just witnessed a young boy aged around six or seven being abducted in broad daylight.
They said the young boy, wearing a red T-shirt and jeans, had been taken into the side of a black Volkswagen Transporter with three distinctive alloy wheels seemingly against his will. They became even more concerned when they discovered a child’s bike abandoned in the street nearby.
Police narrowed the time down to between 4.20pm and 4.40pm and issued CCTV images of the van they believed had been involved. However, they were later able to identify the driver of that van and it was not the vehicle concerned.
Officers later said that the child’s bicycle that had appeared in the appeal was nothing to do with the case, after a pub landlord came forward to say he had dumped it there the day before.
The landlord, who did not want to be named, explained: “I moved it to the back of the old arcade where the bins are, assuming someone would pick it up – all the kids play around there.”
Det Supt Chris Edwards, who is leading the investigation, said: “We take all investigations involving children very seriously and until such time as we can prove otherwise, we will continue to investigate it as reported.”
He continued: “We’re operating two particular theories, the first one and the priority line of investigation is that this is exactly as portrayed and reported, and that a child has been abducted from the roadside.
“The second theory that we are operating, and this a heartfelt plea to anybody who may have information in support of the second theory, is that if you were at that location and involved in an incident yesterday involving your own child, or a child that you are connected to, we would urge you to come forward and make contact immediately in order that we can scale this investigation back and offer messages of reassurance to the public.”
After a widespread appeal, police received 130 calls from the public, but none supporting the original account. Mr Edwards confirmed they had also had no related missing persons report.
‘We take all investigations involving children seriously until we can prove otherwise’