Father under pressure to return abducted daughter

A missing father who abducted his two-year-old daughter from Switzerland was today under pressure to give himself .

A High Court judge took the unusual step of setting aside confidentiality measures and made a direct appeal for him to come forward.

British father Steven King disappeared with young Anna Leorah on December 16 last year and Swiss authorities believe he could be in the UK, as he has close family in County Durham.

‘‘I urge him to end this mother’s nightmare and to come forward with Anna,’’ said Judge Christopher Tyrer last night.

‘‘Since December of last year Anna and her father have been missing and no one seems to know where they are.’’

Mr King, a 41-year-old translator, married Israel-born wife Bat-Sheva King-Hobara in April 1998, just a few days before Anna was born, and settled in Switzerland.

But they separated last summer and a court in Zurich ordered that the child should remain with her mother and Mr King was to have access on two weekends a month.

It was during one of these weekends that he and Anna disappeared.

Mrs King-Hobara’s solicitor in London, Michael Letts, said: ‘‘She doesn’t know if her daughter is alive or dead and she is sick with worry.

‘‘We have exhausted all possible leads and have been unable to find him.

‘‘We have had his friends and family in court to answer questions but have only been able to discover that he has made a single telephone call.

‘‘His elderly father, who is from County Durham, is also extremely concerned about him and is not sleeping properly.

‘‘We think Mr King took advice from a number of sources on how best to disappear and not be found.’’

Mr King is likely to face a child abduction charge if he returns to Switzerland, said Mr Letts.

His wife, who is 38, believes Anna was almost certainly taken to Germany for a time after she was abducted.