Gardaí warn parents of abduction fears

GARDAÍ yesterday warned parents to be on the alert after the attempted abduction of two children near their homes in Dundalk, Co Louth.

Detectives are investigating reports the same man approached another girl soon afterwards in another part of the town.

Gardaí fear the man, in his late 30s or early 40s, with brown hair and glasses, may strike again.

“We would warn parents to be vigilant. Know where your children are, know who they’re with, keep an eye on them,” said a Garda spokesman.

“Of course there is reason to be concerned he may try and do this again.”

The warning came after a lone male drove up to friends Kelly Mullen, aged nine, and Ciara Brady, 10, who were playing in Cedar Wood Park in the Cox’s Demesne estate at 8.10pm on Wednesday.

“We were playing on the road and this car pulled up, he asked us for directions for behind the houses,” explained Kelly.

“He went up, turned and came back and asked us for directions to the chapel because his cat was caught up in the spout of the chapel.

“He said ‘will ye get in the car with me and I’ll give ye 10 if ye help me find my cat’.” Kelly said they became suspicious. “If the cat was caught in the spout of chapel, how did he not know where the chapel was?”

Kelly said they were thinking of the two 10-year-old girls in England, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, who are missing since last Sunday.

“We were thinking of the girls in England and if that had to happen to us, we would have been in the newspaper instead of them.”

Ciara said they were very scared but refused to get into the car and walked back to Kelly’s aunt’s house.

She described the car as white, with a black bumper and a Northern Ireland registration with the letters YCV.

“He had dark brown hair, moustache, an earring in his left ear, and a cream top and was wearing glasses.”

Gardaí immediately informed border controls, but stressed they did not know where the man lived.

It’s not uncommon for people here to be driving Northern registered cars,” said a garda.

Following the incident in Cox’s Demesne, there were reports that a man, believed to be the same man in the same car, pulled alongside a 12-year-old girl in the Fatima area of the town. She was called away by her brother before anything else happened.

Gardaí described it as a “suspicious approach”, but not an attempted abduction.

Gardaí in Dundalk have received a good response from the public and were making inquiries in the areas yesterday.

They are appealing for more information at 042-9335377.