Thread: Australian Father Hires Former Commandos to Grab his Daughter in Thailand

Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try to have his daughter, Natasha, returned.


QUEENSLAND – A heartbroken Australian father took the astonishing step of turning to a team of former special forces soldiers to find his daughter who was taken out of the country to Thailand.

Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try to have his daughter, Natasha, returned.

Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try to have his daughter, Natasha, returned

Increasingly frustrated that his efforts to bring the now seven-year-old home through government agencies, Mr Dempster decided he needed to take more drastic measures.

He enlisted the help of a specialised organisation, made up of a group of ex-soldiers, to bring her back from Thailand.

‘After each failed attempt, I just kept saying “I can’t give up, she’s too precious”,’ Mr Dempster told Daily Mail Australia. ‘I would have done anything for her, as any parent would for their child.’

Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try and have his daughter, Natasha, returned.

more Australian Father Hires Former Commando?s to Grab his Daughter in Thailand | Chiang Rai Times English Language Newspaper

Who is to saw she is better off with him? (She might be, but not always) Western arrogance at play here.

^ Pretty safe odds she's better off in Australia than with some vindictive you-know-what, likely in Isaan. Probably not over, these xenophobic clowns will have to have the last say regardless of what's best for the child.

How old is he? How well does the child know him? What languages does she speak? Where are her emotional attachments? Where are her extended family? What is the effect of being forcibly snatched, actually kidnapped from her home going to be? As a former lawyer I thought you may have had an understanding of some of this....

^ We can ask most those same questions for when she was taken by the mother in the first place. Apparently, she was illegally taken.

If the girl was kidnapped to a remote place where she would not have decent options for schooling to live with her grandparents (who she probably didn't even know before she was taken there), I would think she is better off with the father.

We don't have both sides of the story.

He's committed an international crime, Hague Convention, then brags about it. Off to jail mate. Who's going to look after the daughter then, the special forces?

Did he recruit these "commandos" from a bar in Pattaya?

Originally Posted by BobR

^ Pretty safe odds she's better off in Australia than with some vindictive you-know-what, likely in Isaan. Probably not over, these xenophobic clowns will have to have the last say regardless of what's best for the child.

Quick and speculative towards a one-sided story.
Typical.

White is always in the right.

Originally Posted by misskit

Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try to have his daughter, Natasha, returned.

Aside from repeating the above 3 times, OP pretty light on detail.
Hard to form opinion on who is the culprit but perfect fodder for TDCIS squad.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

He's committed an international crime, Hague Convention, then brags about it. Off to jail mate. Who's going to look after the daughter then, the special forces?

It seems a tad strange that they actually made it all the way back to Australia.

The full story would be interesting.

^The full story is in the link at the bottom of the OP:

QUEENSLAND – A heartbroken Australian father took the astonishing step of turning to a team of former special forces soldiers to find his daughter who was taken out of the country to Thailand. Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try to have his daughter, Natasha, returned.
Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try to have his daughter, Natasha, returned

Increasingly frustrated that his efforts to bring the now seven-year-old home through government agencies, Mr Dempster decided he needed to take more drastic measures.
He enlisted the help of a specialised organisation, made up of a group of ex-soldiers, to bring her back from Thailand.
‘After each failed attempt, I just kept saying “I can’t give up, she’s too precious”,’ Mr Dempster told Daily Mail Australia. ‘I would have done anything for her, as any parent would for their child.’
Stuart Dempster, from Brisbane, Queensland, was distraught when his ex-wife disappeared with his little girl and he faced a two-year battle to try and have his daughter, Natasha, returned.
In January 2013, the Scottish-born hurdling coach who now lives in Queensland was shocked when he came home to find his home empty and his wife and daughter gone.
He was devastated to discover his wife – a Thai national – had abruptly left the country, taking their four-year-old daughter Natasha with her to live with her mother.
‘I came back to an empty house. I was calling and calling but no one answered their phone,’ Mr Dempster told the Daily Mail.
‘I was in a panic, I was trying to figure out why it was happening. I tried but I couldn’t get to the airport on time.
‘That was it, she was gone. Natasha was gone. We weren’t even given a chance to say goodbye.’
Natasha was taken from Australia to Thailand to live with her maternal grandmother.
For almost 18 months, Mr Dempster desperately chased down every lead – appealing for help from the police, government agencies and from any legal measures possible – but to no avail.
Mr Dempster was forced to take such drastic measures after a photo of his daughter being held in a remote Thailand village was uncovered by Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI) a group of former elite soldiers that works on international cases concerning children who have been taken.
He clutched onto hope, despite struggling with loneliness after losing his beloved daughter.
‘It was just a horrible feeling – returning to an empty, dark house for two and a half years,’ he said.
‘When I used to come home, I’d open the garage door and Natasha would be there jumping up and down, saying “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!”
Mr Dempster shares a close bond with his daughter Natasha and was devastated when she was taken away.
After months of planning, CARI was able to swoop in May this year and pluck young Natasha from the village and return her home.
The group also claimed Natasha’s family ignored repeated calls to return the young girl, and that Thailand Police were also contacted and refused to help.
‘It was insanely difficult to bring her home. There was little help from the law or government agencies. CARI is the real deal and the only ones who could help me. I’m so grateful the organisation exists,’ he said.
Mr Dempster faced countless major setbacks and lost thousands of dollars until he finally found a way to bring his little girl home.
‘The entire process was frightening. I had to confront all of my fears and just keep playing the brave card,’ said Mr Dempster.
‘The stakes were so high. Psychologically it was very stressful.’
He desperately wanted to make contact with his daughter to let her know he cared and loved her.
‘Natasha was told that she was leaving Australia for a week’s holiday, but was left wondering where Daddy had gone,’ Mr Dempster explained.
The turning point in his mission to bring his daughter home came when he made contact with the UK-based charity, which works with similar cases.
‘The organisation said Adam from CARI was the only one they trust,’ said Mr Dempster.

The struggle wasn’t over though. It was an extremely delicate operation with many failed attempts between January 2014 – when Mr Dempster first came into contact with CARI – until Natasha was finally returned to Brisbane this year.
Natasha is back in Brisbane with her father. She is pictured on a plane before she was moved from Australia

CARI, which describes itself as a ‘under the radar’ group, was formed by ex-Australian Army member and police officer Adam Whittington.
Mr Whittington said the group, which he founded in 1999 with ’10 guys, mostly ex-special forces ‘, uses ‘elite military and specialised police experience’ to save children from potentially horrific outcomes.
‘We were just having beers in a pub and heard about a bad abduction story in Indonesia and one of us said, ‘let’s go help’ – it was a joke at first, but then we started thinking about it and how to do it… and it has sort of gone from there,’ Mr Whittington said.
‘We have seen some horrible, horrible conditions while travelling around the world children who have been kidnapped either by a parent, or in a lot of cases now, human traffickers for child prostitution.’
The controversial organisation is committed to returning children to their rightful homes.
‘In Stuart’s case, we got some information and did a stake out that led us to Natasha. We recovered her by waiting for the right, safe opportunity to arise, which in this case was when Natasha walked outside the house.,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Natasha, pictured as a little girl, with her dedicated father Stuart Dempster before she was taken

‘Stuart saw her, I gave him the green light and he ran over and picked her up. The bond between the two of them was incredible – you could see straight away in her face that she knew him.’
Mr Dempster says the moment he saw his daughter for the first time since her abrupt disappearance was ‘wonderful.’
‘It was so great to see her the first time after so long. She jumped into my arms,’ Mr Dempster agrees, explaining the immense relief he felt to see his little girl again.
But tracking her down was only half the battle, with Mr Dempster, Mr Whittington and Natasha forced to make their way across Thailand’s border in a boat before they could board a flight back to Australia.
‘We’ve done a lot of cases, and honestly the way the abductors acted in this one was completely selfish,’ Mr Whittington said.
‘Stuart was put through hell throughout all this, he did everything he could and was then left with no other choice but this to get his daughter back.’
Mr Whittington founded CARI in 2003 with ’10 guys, mostly ex-special forces’, and it uses ‘elite military and specialised police experience’ to return children from similar situations

Mr Dempster says the process was completely worthwhile and he is thrilled his daughter is happy and settled at home.
‘It was a heartbreaking process. I’m not a spiteful type of person, I did it because I knew I was doing the right thing for my daughter,’ he said.
‘I had to get through this bad part of it because I was doing it for the good.
‘I’m just so grateful she’s back in my life. I’m working to make sure she’s rehabilitated back into Australian life. I have people with me helping so I know and do everything I can to help her.
‘There were far more opportunities for Natasha at home with me in Australia than being stuck in that horrible place.’
Natasha was taken from Australia to Thailand in 2013 at the age of four. She is finally home, aged seven

Mr Whittington said: ‘It’s all about the children, that’s why we do this.’
He also described the amazing perseverance and ultimate success Mr Dempster had in getting his daughter back as ‘inspirational’ for other parents who have had their children taken.
‘It might take time, but your children are waiting and thinking of you,’ he said.
Mr Whittington has over 20 years experience working high profile missing person cases worldwide.
He was the lead investigator of an abducted and murdered British girl in Japan – one of the most high-profile abduction cases in Japanese history. Mr Whittington’s investigations helped identify a suspect who was subsequently sentenced to life in prison for eight rapes and murders of foreign women.
By Lucy Thackray and Liam Quinn For Daily Mail Australia
Operatives from Child Abduction Recovery International have recovered children in Indonesia, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Philippines, Japan, Russia, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Syria and UAE, as well as many other European, South American and African countries.

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Originally Posted by kingwilly

Who is to saw she is better off with him? (She might be, but not always) Western arrogance at play here.

Just about anybody, ever.

CARI: Australian child abduction experts in demand overseas

WHEN an Australian documentary crew turned up in a remote part of Laos with a boat and Jeep with blacked-out windows, no one suspected a thing.

The team of ex-military operatives were posing undercover on a mission to snatch four-year-old Moregan from his family home and return him to his father Gordon Carr in the UK.

“We had boats ready on the river and basically we were waiting inside vans with tinted windows,” said Adam Whittington, an ex-Australian Army member and policeman.
Mr Whittington is now managing director of Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI), a controversial business that works on behalf of parents to “recover” children abducted overseas by one of their parents.

“Everyone was chasing us and it was like a scene from a Hollywood movie, [but] it was done perfectly safe, perfectly well … Our number one priority is the child’s safety.”
What sounds like a scene from Hollywood’s Taken is another day in the life of Mr Whittington and his gang of 13 ex-army, CIA and government operatives.

With jobs from Europe to the Middle East, Africa and Asia that cost upwards of $20,000 each, the full-time staff use their military planning, observation and tactical skills to plot the return of children in cases that are becoming more common due to a rise in cross-cultural relationships and ease of travel internationally.

The company has been the subject of a recent documentary Abducted, centring on the case of Cypriot father Craig Michael, who employed Mr Whittington to snatch back his daughter Crystal after her mother Marta took her to Poland. The dramatic night-time raid showed the two men surprising the family at home and grabbing the crying two-year-old before speeding off in a waiting car.

Despite the tension, Mr Whittington is adamant his solution is the best one for desperate parents. He said CARI conduct extensive background checks to ensure there were no accusations of domestic or sexual abuse and only acted where court orders were in place.

“We base our stuff on what the courts have decided and that’s the fairest thing we can do,” he said.

“Our business is what is the best interest for the child. It’s got nothing to do with the client or the abductor; it’s really about the innocent children and this is what people don’t understand.”

It’s controversial and dangerous work that saw Mr Whittington sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail in Singapore along with one of his clients and another Australian man, after he pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally and criminal assault.

But it’s a risk Mr Whittington is willing to take as he says most people don’t realise how children can be used as “weapons” in a war between their parents.

“They’re kept inside, they don’t go to school. If they’re sick they don’t get taken to doctors or hospitals because they can be traced through the authorities.”

“Some of them are in horrendous conditions. This is why we do this job. Not because of the mums and dads, but [because] these children don’t choose to be taken away and locked up in an apartment like maximum security, and this is how some of them are living.”


Others aren’t so sure about their methods. The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth office said it was crucial all parties used the right legal channels when it came to returning children.

Reunite International chief executive officer Alison Shalaby, who works to support families where children have been abducted, said while she hadn’t worked with the group, her organisation encourages parents to try a mediation-based approach, which is becoming more popular.

“It’s not something we recommend parents do because in many instances it can be illegal. It can put the parent at risk, it can put the child at risk,” she said.
She said many people didn’t realise that a court order didn’t necessarily make it legal to go into other countries.

“You can get a return order from your own country but that is not a valid order in the country the child is in … That is one of the misunderstandings parents are maybe told,” she said.

“People tend to think it’s about parental rights, but it’s not about the rights of one parent over the other parent. It’s the rights of the child to have a meaningful relationship with both parents.”

Gordon Carr, whose son Moregan was returned to him in the dramatic Laos case, said he had no regrets whatsoever about his decision to snatch back his son.
“It was a decision I had to make. I tried to do it amicably with the family time and time again but it just wasn’t happening” he said.

“Being without his father would have traumatised him for the rest of his life.”
However clinical psychologist Heather Irvine-Rundle says a dramatic “recovery” mission such as the one in Laos above could also leave a child traumatised.
She told news.com.au that a child being snatched from his home by a group of strangers then placed on boat was not a normal for a child and therefore could have serious psychological effects.

“Even if there are no physical dangers, that is actually quite traumatic for a child,” she said.

Ms Irvine-Rundle said this “gung-ho” approach to remove a child from a “dangerous or unlawful environment” failed to take into account the attachment a child might have to one of their parents.

“Just because its illegal to take a child from Australia to another country doesn’t mean the child doesn’t have a secure attachment with that parent,” she said.
Ms Irvine-Rundle said research had shown that when a child was removed from a primary attachment figure at a young age it could have long-term psychological effects.

“The child can manage it if they are going from one primary attachment figure to potentially a secondary attachment figure but in a lot of these cases, where they have already tried to go through the legal process, it’s been a long time between the child being with the primary attachment figure, normally the mother, and the secondary attachment figure, which is the father. So they are not moving from a safe attachment to another they are moving to a stranger,” she said.

“Now, what happens when that is done to any child, as you can imagine, is that they often get very distressed and very lost and very confused about their world. And there is a sense of abandonment that goes along with that that can end up impacting that person for the rest of their life.

“The trauma of trying to adjust to a whole lot of strangers who aren’t your primary attachment figure, or your safe person, can produce all sorts of depression, anxiety personality disorders that the person has to cope with for the rest of their lives.”
Ms Irvine-Rundle said she understood if the child needed to be removed from an environment that was clearly unsafe, but if it was safe she questioned the need for such drastic action.

“I understand the other parent feels alienated and distressed but I am not sure going in and having this recovery mission is actually in the best interests of the child,” she said.

Thailand Police were also contacted and refused to help.

My word, what happened to Thainess?

Oh.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

How old is he? How well does the child know him? What languages does she speak? Where are her emotional attachments? Where are her extended family? What is the effect of being forcibly snatched, actually kidnapped from her home going to be? As a former lawyer I thought you may have had an understanding of some of this....

Yes actually I do; the welfare of the child is the only thing that matters when a court considers custody. Convenience to the parents or fairness are irrelevant. Most states also strive to have the children maintain a meaningful relationship with both parents, if possible.

What future does this girl have in Thailand? (assuming the wife was the standard issue BG?)

Even if the father is less than perfect, Australia has government agencies to protect children, Thailand essentially does not.

Originally Posted by BobR

assuming

Seems you do a lot of that. Try reading the article above that I posted.

Kingwilly, the child was abducted in the first place by the mother who in all likelihood was a craven, scheming opportunist slapdog Isaan whore without a single scruple in her body. No decent Thai woman of any worth could possibly decide that a life for her child in this shitty country was preferable to one in a civilised place, with a decent education system and proper healthcare under the control of her natural father who clearly wants her.
She was so obviously looking to gain a commercial advantage from her luk kreung daughter by snatching her and using her as a vehicle for extorting money from the father.
Get real and stop with this bullshit.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Originally Posted by BobR

assuming

Seems you do a lot of that. Try reading the article above that I posted.

I did, maybe I missed it, but other than living in a "remote Thailand village" which supports the BG assumption, and absolutely no chance of a decent future for the daughter, I see nothing about the mother.

^ KW is just in one of his bad moods today.

^^

Fair reply that one Thegent.

Seems like these guys are doing some fine work.

Good on the dad. A man's gotta do. He and his daughter look very happy and I wish them all the best

The west is better than Thailand? Go and live in Bournemouth. You blokes are all making good assumptions that she's a whore, she may or may not be. The bloke may or may not be a better dad either. How old is he? How will he take her to school even, where will she go while he is at the pub drinking his pension? What happens in 5 years when he finally pops his clogs?

^

Urm Willy,

Didn't the mother illegally take the kid in the first place and the guy is only exercising his legal right ?

That's how I read the story.

Whether she is a fit mother is secondary me thinks.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

The west is better than Thailand? Go and live in Bournemouth. You blokes are all making good assumptions that she's a whore, she may or may not be. The bloke may or may not be a better dad either. How old is he? How will he take her to school even, where will she go while he is at the pub drinking his pension? What happens in 5 years when he finally pops his clogs?

Irrespective of his future, her's in Oz is infinitely better than if she stayed in this shithole with whore slapdogs for company as they gamble away any money she manages to get for the thieving trollops from dad and his family.

Fuck me, are you a poof or what, Willy? You're certainly talking like one.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

The west is better than Thailand?

If you have to ask that question then you're fucking demented.