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Caroline Overington
February 24, 2009
The Australian FEDERAL police have searched the office, home and rubbish of one of Australia's foremost child-welfare experts in their hunt for a Sydney businesswoman who fled Australia with her four-year-old son in defiance of the Family Court.
Emeritus professor at the University of South Australia, Freda Briggs, said federal officers had questioned her about Melinda Stratton's whereabouts. Ms Stratton, who has an MBA and speaks French and German, fled the country in April with son Andrew, saying she had lost faith in the Family Court.
Her estranged husband, NSW deputy fire chief Ken Thompson, has been waging a public campaign to find his son, using the internet, bus shelters and billboards here and in Europe.
Interpol has issued alerts in 187 countries and the Hague Convention on International Child Abductions has been activated. The Family Court has issued a publication order, allowing the parties to the case to be identified.
Professor Briggs is one of several child-abuse campaigners contacted by Ms Stratton since she fled.
Ms Stratton has also arranged for two letters to be delivered to The Australian, the most recent of which was received on Friday. It contains defamatory allegations about Mr Thompson that he strenuously denies.
"When the police came here, they said, 'Do you know where she is?' I told them the truth, 'No, I do not'," Professor Briggs said yesterday.
She said police wanted the envelope that contained the letter from Ms Stratton "although it should be obvious to them that ... someone else posted (it) locally".
"She's not dumb," Professor Briggs said. "She's obviously emailed the letters as attachments to someone else who posted them for her. I wouldn't mind betting that she used two different people."
Professor Briggs said she did not condone Ms Stratton's decision to flee with Andrew.
"I tried (in an earlier phone call) to persuade her to come back, but she refused," Professor Briggs said.
Mr Thompson told The Australian yesterday that he wanted his wife and son to come home.
"It would be good if I could get a message to Melinda, through the newspaper, to say that she should come home, to see if we can find a solution to this," he said."I don't believe Andrew's best interests are being served, by being away from his father for 10 months."
Mr Thompson said he would not seek full custody of Andrew.
"I want Andrew to have a relationship with both his parents," he said.
"I don't want to see Melinda punished. I don't want her to get arrested. I don't want her to go to prison. I want to bring Andrew home in the least traumatic way possible." Original Artilcle:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25097862-5006784,00.html
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