Couple questioned about abduction of baby boy

BRITISH police were last night continuing to question a young couple arrested in connection with the abduction of an eight-month-old child found abandoned at a Carlow Cathedral on Friday.

The couple, a 22-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man, were arrested in north Wales on Saturday. It is believed they had recently disembarked from a ferry from Ireland.

The little boy was found safe and well at the cathedral after being taken from his legal guardian’s home in Nottinghamshire on Thursday. It was believed the child’s mother – who is no longer the legal guardian – and her partner may have been in Ireland.

A person visiting Carlow’s Cathedral reportedly heard a man and woman crying as they left the porch area.

The baby boy is in the care of the Health Service Executive while the Garda and their counterparts in Nottinghamshire work to reunite him with his legal guardian in the Ashfield area of the county.

A police spokesman said: “Nottinghamshire Police are investigating the circumstances which led to an eight-month-old boy being taken from his home in the county to the Irish Republic. Police have worked extensively to locate the child and had already established that he may have been taken to Ireland when the Irish police confirmed at about 3.30pm on Friday that he had been found safe and well near a cathedral in the town of Carlow.

“The child had been left with a note giving his name and date of birth.”

Police said the boy would be reunited with his legal guardian this week.

Officers added that they were “concerned” for a man and a woman believed to have been involved in the incident.