|
|
|
|
LONDON (Reuters) - The mother of Ben Needham, who
vanished as a toddler on a Greek island in 1991, said her heart goes
out to the parents of Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old feared
abducted in Portugal.
Kerry Grist, 34, said the girl's mother, Kate McCann, would feel as
though "her heart's been ripped out" after her daughter disappeared
from an Algarve holiday
village last Thursday.
"It was like a mirror image -- the look on her face, the fear, the
worry, everything. It was like seeing myself 15 years ago," Grist
told BBC radio on Tuesday.
"She is going to have a lot of different emotions. She's going to be
really frightened of not knowing what's happened to Madeleine, very
confused ... feel like her heart's been ripped out."
On Monday, the McCanns, from Leicestershire, made an emotional
appeal for the safe return of their daughter.
"Please, please do not hurt her. Please do not scare her. Please
tell us where to find her or put her in a place of safety," family
doctor Kate McCann, 38, told a news conference.
The hunt for the missing girl has stirred painful memories for the
family of Ben Needham, who disappeared in July 1991 as he played
outside a house on the Aegean
island of Kos. He was 21 months old.
Despite repeated appeals for information and numerous possible
sightings, few clues have emerged over his whereabouts. His mother
said she suspected he was abducted and sold to a childless couple.
"In the first few days, weeks and months that Ben had disappeared,
we never thought for one minute that somebody would have abducted
him," she said. "We always thought that he may have wandered off,
somebody may have found him.
"You live every day thinking that somebody's just going to walk back
through the door with him.
"In my heart, I feel that if I thought for one minute that Ben were
no longer alive, I would have given up by now.
"I can't, there's something that drives me on to keep looking --
keep looking and keep fighting for him." |
|
 |
|
