I am the father of Rhian Toolan, a British Child unlawfully abducted to and illegally detained in Poland. Rhian was abducted in August 2018, 6 weeks after a decision by the Family Courts prohibiting  Rhian being permanently removed from the UK.

 

Rhian was abducted by her mother, a Polish national who lived in the UK for 23 years.

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Rhian’s abduction was premeditated and is a criminal offence under Section 1 of the 1984 Child Abduction Act, although it took me two years, two Police forces and a Victims Appeal to CPS, eventually resulting in a European arrest warrant being issued for my daughter's abductor and my daughter being placed on Interpol’s Missing Persons Yellow Notice alert, despite all of this, my daughter remains illegally detained in Poland.

 

A year prior to my daughters abduction I had applied to the family courts for a prohibitive steps orders as I believed that my daughter's mother would flee the UK and abduct Rhian. My application was dismissed by the courts. My experience with trying to obtain a Prohibitive Steps Order was difficult and it was clear that the court held my assertions as an attempt to be manipulative and controlling and I was forced to handover my daughters passport.

 

Following the above hearing I was experiencing challenges getting access to Rhian, so I applied to the family courts for more time with my daughter. At the same time my daughter's mother applied to take Rhian to Poland permanently. During the 3-day hearing, I was accused of being controlling, violent, and abusive, financially abusive, mentally ill and, of course abusive towards my daughter, none of which was true.

 

Fortunately for me, I had Disclosure and Baring Service (DBS) certificates going back 20+ years, no criminal record, and a lot of character witnesses, who contradicted the accusations and two CAFAS investigations determined that the accusations were without foundation - I was lucky.

 

Following my daughter's abduction, I obtained return orders from the family courts and ultimately from the High Court, all ignored. I applied for my daughter's return to the UK under the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction – Hague Convention and subsequently under Brussels IIa legislation for the enforcement of UK court orders in Poland.

 

During these procedures I again faced false allegations, including but not limited to slavery, forced labour, domestic violence/abuse, abusing my daughter, abusing my stepdaughter, these allegations were not just made in court, they were made in the Polish press with my daughter and her mother appearing on Polish TV.

 

I was unable to counter these allegations because my daughter's abduction, whilst falling under the Hague Convention, also fell under the jurisdiction of the UK High Court. The High Court refused my application to go public.

 

As it stands today, I have a case in the European Court of Human Rights. The European Justice Commission has instigated legal proceedings against Poland in which my daughter's abduction is cited, yet my daughter remains illegally detained in Poland.

 

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Links to information and articles:

 

 

Interpol

https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/View-Yellow-Notices#2022-7859 

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EU

https://ec.europa.eu/atwork/applying-eu-law/infringements-proceedings/infringement_decisions/index.cfm?lang_code=EN&typeOfSearch=false&active_only=0&noncom=0&r_dossier=INFR%282021%292001&decision_date_from=&decision_date_to=&title=&submit=Search

Press

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/rhian-toolan-abducted-poland-father-get-her-home/ 

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/brexit-stopped-us-getting-our-abducted-children-back/

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Hoc 

https://youtube.com/shorts/40iZQnA6Wq8?feature=share

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/8879e4b2-0741-4908-87be-53639fe6eeef

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https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2023-03-22/debates/46D069C8-D175-4B93-BD7A-971BBF3F4BDE/InternationalChildAbduction 

 

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2024-04-30a.141.2&s=speaker%3A24778#g141.5