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Stephen Watkins has been searching for his sons for more than seven months. His sons Alexander and Christopher Watkins were allegedly taken from their Ontario home in Ontario by their mother. There is still no word on the boys.
Mr. Watkins is now working with another father who is also searching for his son. Australian Ken Thompson's former wife abducted his son Andrew. With the help of Help Find My Child and Forever Searching the fathers hope to bring their sons home and help other parents find their missing children if possible. Both groups are based out of the United Kingdom and use a network of volunteers to help bring children home. The two groups have combined forces with the Watkins case to work as a team in order to find the young boys. I talked to Stephen Watkins today about the search for his boys.
"Before my boys went missing I never knew about these groups. To think that people volunteer their time searching on the Internet to help families find their children is amazing."
Along with the two groups the two fathers have launched a MySpace campaign in an effort to find their children. The fathers are not having as much success getting the video featured at the social media site.
All three boys were last seen at the airport in Frankfort, Germany. After leaving the building it's as if they dropped off the face of the earth.
The Watkins case is especially disturbing as Stephen knew that an abduction would happen. He had been in the courts five times trying to have the boys passports canceled.
"I knew that Edyta was going to abduct the boys a year prior to it happening. I had approached Child Find in Ontario in 2008. After the abduction they said I was the first case where the parent knew it would happen they had dealt with."
Because of the information that Watkins received from Child Find he had profile pictures and complete documentation of his children in place before they were taken.
I asked Watkins about his wife's mental illness issues. Watkins told me that she has not been legally diagnosed with any condition. After the first article came out, he removed that from his web site.
"Edyta has not been legally diagnosed bipolar. The term came out from professionals and the judge did say she was. He is not a doctor however."
Edyta has had problems in the past with abusing the boys, both physically and mentally. That is why the boys were placed in their father's sole custody by Ontario's Children's Aid Society who documented the abuses.
Watkins said that some of the abuse could stem from Alexander's diagnosis of High Function Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
"Edyta is in denial that Alexander is autistic. Autistic children do not respond well to physical discipline."
Watkins and Alexander were registered at Kerry's Place in an effort to work on the disorder.
It is thought that the children are in Poland. Edyta's family in Chicago have admitted that the boys are in the European country. The family in Poland has refused to cooperate in the case Watkins told me.
Mr. Watkins told me the most disturbing thing about his case is that it should have never happened. He had been in the courts twice knowing that Edyta would abduct the children, trying to make sure that the boys couldn't be taken out of Canada.
"I went before two judges. We had the documentation that she had passports for the boys. She would say she didn't. The judges turned a blind eye on this case. The judge thought it was not an issue when she denied having the passports even though we had proof from Ottawa that she did. Judge Brownstone did not enforce orders that had been given to Edtya. The judges aren't doing what they need to do to protect the children."
Those orders include stating an address and turning over the children's passports. Ms. Watkins refused to do so and was not punished by the courts for that refusal. The one thing that was done was to suspend her passport for not paying child support.
Watkins discovered along his legal journey the many problems that sole custodial parents can face in Canada when it comes to protecting their children from parental abduction.
"There are problems at both the federal and the provisional level."
One of those problems is the way child passports are issued. When a child is given a passport only the applicant can cancel it. This does not change even if the status of the applicant does, allowing at times non-custodial parents being the ones holding a child's passport and the custodial parent unable to get it canceled. The only way to have a passport canceled is by going to court. Watkins was in court five times and each time his request was denied.
He had been fighting the system for years in order to have those passports canceled. Passport Canada does not make it easy for a sole custodial parent.
"There is no protection to the children when it comes to passports. There were no follow-ups with any of the agencies that were in the documentation. Because of this children are not safe in Canada in this situation. There are a lot of holes in the system."
With the knowledge that an abduction was looming I asked Watkins if he had discussed it with the children. The boys had regular visits with their mother on weekends.
"I talked only positively about their mother. I tried to warn him but it was difficult to do without being negative. I believe every child needs both a mum and a dad. I never wanted to paint Mum in a bad light."
There have been no poster campaigns in Canada for the Watkins boys because they are not in the nation. The boys and their mother boarded a flight to Frankfurt, Germany on March 6, 2009. Somehow Edyta's suspended passport was not an issue as she flew off with the boys. They have not been seen since.
For more information on parental abductions please go to Victims of Violence.
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