Dad Pedals Round Europe To Find His Son
1:04pm Sunday September 12, 2010
Kat Higgins
An Australian man who rode his bicycle thousands of kilometres around Europe looking for his missing son has found him in Holland.
Andrew Thompson was taken to Frankfurt by his mother Melinda in 2008 when he was three years old. The boy's father, Ken, has not seen him since the pair disappeared. Police and Interpol efforts to find Mr Thompson's estranged wife failed so he decided to hunt for them himself.
Melinda Stratton once worked in London, so his two-wheeled search began in the UK. After finding nothing, Mr Thompson moved on to other European countries including France, Belgium and Germany. Last week he received an anonymous email saying his son, now aged six, was in Amsterdam - and the tip-off proved correct.
Andrew disappeared with his mother when he was three
Ms Stratton has been arrested and is now in custody awaiting extradition to Australia. Mr Thompson had been cycling for over three months in the search for his son, while also highlighting the plight of parents of abducted children. Father and son have not yet been reunited and it is believed child psychologists are preparing Andrew for the meeting.
Mr Thompson said: "I think it's important that he starts to get some stability back in his life but it needs to be managed very carefully. "I can't just walk in and pick him up and expect him to know who I am and understand what's happening. "We need to manage that process very carefully so that he has time to come to terms with the fact that his father is coming back into his life and he needs to feel comfortable about that."
