Police reopen missing baby case

SCOTLAND YARD yesterday reopened the investigation into the baffling disappearance of Britain’s youngest kidnap victim.

Five-month-old Ames Glover vanished after being taken from the back of his father's car in north London in 1990.

The abduction shocked the country and provoked a huge police search.

But despite an international investigation amid fears Ames had been murdered, no trace was ever found of the infant.

The trail has long gone cold, but Ames's mother, Shanika, still clings to the hope that he is still alive.

Yesterday on what would have been Ames's 14th birthday Shanika and the Metropolitan police appealed for fresh information in the desperate hope that new evidence will emerge to shed light on the disturbing case.

A reward of £10,000 (€14,000) is now on offer for help on what could be a murder or a kidnap investigation.

In an emotional appeal, Shanika said: "I just need to know what happened. I am desperately clinging to hope, but I need to know, even if it is bad news.

"I wonder what he would be like if he was still alive. I sometimes look at children in that age group, mixed race like him, and I wonder."

Ames's father Paul Glover was at one time the prime suspect in the case. He was arrested but released without charge and has always denied any involvement.

Police believe Ames might have been smuggled out of the country after being snatched.

Detectives have travelled to Ghana, where Mr Glover is from, but failed to find any trace of the missing child.

They considered constructing an image of what Ames might look like now like missing British toddler Ben Needham, who disappeared in Greece in 1991. But an expert forensic artist told police that at five months old, Ames's bone structure had not developed enough to project what his face would be like now.

Shanika, now 35, and Mr Glover, who now lives in north London, had separated by the time their son disappeared on February 5, 1990. Ames was with Mr Glover in his car that Monday evening, when he stopped in Southall.

The only account of what happened next came from Mr Glover. He told police that he left Ames in the locked car, and used a cashpoint and bought a take-away before returning 15 minutes later. When he got there, he says, the child was gone.

Despite an exhaustive investigation, the police never found anybody who saw Ames being taken from the car, parked in a busy street, or even remembers seeing him in the vehicle.

One troubling inconsistency in Mr Glover's story is he claimed the kidnappers must have broken into his car to take Ames, but there was no sign of damage.

For Ames's mother, there are only memories of the precious months she spent with her son.

Sri Lankan-born Shanika, who now prefers to use her maiden name, Ondaatjie, struggles to cling to the memory of the five months she had with her son.

"It is very difficult, but life has to go on. I always said that I wanted to get to the bottom of this, and I will not be satisfied until I do that," she said.

"It is difficult not knowing somebody out there knows what happened. They need to contact the police.

"I feel that for 13 years somebody has been holding the key to what happened to Ames. I want that person to come forward with the key so I can unlock what happened. It has been hard, but I am a fighter."

It was only when she spoke of Ames himself, rather than the mystery of his disappearance, that Shanika's composure cracked. Dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, she continued: "I only have a few photographs of him, and that is how I remember him. But it is getting hard to remember."

The couple had married the previous September, a month after the birth of Ames, but had separated before the abduction.

They had moved out of their home, and Shanika was living in a hostel in Greenford.

"I was moving on and I was having a life of my own," she said.

Today she will not talk about her own life but has tried to move on. She has moved away from Southall, but will not reveal where.

Detective Superintendent Gordon Briggs, leading the investigation, said: "We have a mother who does not know what happened to her child. We need to prosecute those who know what happened to the child.

"We hope old allegiances will not be the same and some people will come forward to tell us the truth."

The investigation was re-opened under a "cold case review" by the Metropolitan police unit which examines unsolved cases.

The move came after Shanika approached police last year, desperate for the answers that will allow her to pick up the pieces of her life and move on.

"Thirteen years is a long time," she said. "I just wanted the police to have another look."