Boy returns to US after alleged kidnap by grandparents

DYLAN Benwell, the Cork-born youngster at the centre of an international tug of love, returned to the home of his mother in the US yesterday, over three months after his grandparents were accused of kidnapping him.

Early last month, his grandparents, who live in Cobh, Co Cork, were charged in the US with abducting their nine-year-old grandson from his home last July. A grand jury at Lake County, Illinois, indicted Ethel and Timothy Blake on a charge of aggravated kidnapping for taking their grandson from his mother’s home at Winthrop Harbour on July 22 last.

The retired Cobh couple took Dylan back to their home in Cork, saying they did not want their grandchild to be influenced by his stepfather, who is in the US military.