KIDNAPPING OUR KIDS
Sunday, July 29 from 9am-11am

They are Australia's new Stolen Generation. Every year thousands of Australian families deal with the agony of custody disputes. But in many cases parents take the law into their own hands and disappear with their children, refusing to give their former partners access and even knowledge about their child's wellbeing.

This week, SUNDAY reporter Kirstine Lumb explores the issue of parental child abduction and the devastation it causes to children and to the parents left behind.

Each morning Trayna Simpson wakes to the reality that his two young sons are missing. For almost three years he has heard nothing of them. The two young brothers, Housen and Juha are believed to have been abducted by their mother.

Trayna tells SUNDAY of his daily grief at the authorities not being able to locate his boys, “I get frightened. I’m frightened right now I’m getting deadly frightened about how I feel. I don’t want to show people how much damage it does”.

One of the longest running cases of parental child abduction in Australian history was that of the children of Jacqueline Pascarl, formerly Jacqueline Gillespie. They were abducted by their Malaysian father Prince Raja Bahrin in 1992. Jacqueline has campaigned for children’s rights ever since and explains that those parents who do abduct are not thinking of their children’s wellbeing, “There is no winning, there is no winning in child abduction. There is no win or lose, it’s not a game of chess where the child’s a pawn or the queen, you’re not going to checkmate someone, this is a no win situation. The children are the ultimate losers”.

Damian Mastoras agrees. His daughter, Ondeine, was allegedly taken by his ex partner in 2002 when she was 17 months old. Despite federal police efforts, no trace of her has ever been found. Damian fears for his daughters safety knowing that she must be living a life in hiding to remain out of the eyes of the law and claims that “The only victims in this case are the children, the children who are going without one parent or without the other family having to hide, like Ondeine, what kind of life is she living at the moment where she can’t, you know, her mother can’t take her out in public, has to use a false name if that’s what’s going on. Where is she? What is she doing? She’s not living a normal life”.