Abducted German children in Australia

25 February 2004

SYDNEY – Two children spirited out of Germany by their father after a broken marriage have been reunited with their mother Wednesday in a remote New South Wales town just one week after she arrived in Australia in a bid to recover them through legal proceedings.

After Tim and Nico Schmidt, aged seven and five, were snatched from Germany by their father, Andreas Stephan Schmidt, in November 2002, mother Marion Schmidt, 29, took out court orders in Germany and Australia to get them back.

Last week, Marion Schmidt and her mother, Elisabeth Sehr, arrived in Australia to find the father and get the boys back.

After a tip-off from the public, police found the boys with their father at New Angeldool, 100 kilometres north-west of Lightning Ridge in the far north of New South Wales, an official of the Family Court in Sydney told Australia’s AAP news agency.

The brothers, who are in good spirits, will fly back to their home town of Limburg, near Frankfurt, next week.

Marion and Andreas Schmidt moved to Australia from Germany in 1995 and married a year later.

They returned to Germany in 1999. Their sons were born in Australia but speak German as their first language.

On arrival in Sydney last week, Marion Schmidt, who had to borrow money for her and her mother’s airfare to Australia, said she had been devastated by the abduction of her sons and was desperate to get them back.

DPA
Subject: German news