- Snatched kids' parents feud
- By Janet Fife-Yeomans and Gemma Jones
- The Daily Telegraph
- 05/05/2007 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: admin ( 59 articles in 2007 )
Denied one last hug ... Murray Robertson, pictured with the kids, told of his heartache yesterday.
AN emotional Philippa Yelland last night described the first moments of her dramatic reunion with her missing children as like meeting strangers.
Meanwhile her estranged husband Murray Robertson has told how she would not let him hug the three kids one last time at the end of their six weeks on the run.
Join the parents and others having their say on the tragic tale that has gripped the nation at our blog.
As the feuding continued yesterday, the parents both spoke out about their children.
"Their faces have changed and they've acquired new parts of their personalities," Ms Yelland said.
"I thought, 'My goodness, these children are familiar, but strangers'."
Bokkie, 10, Matilda, 9, and Barney, 7, were snatched away by their father Mr Robertson during an access visit six weeks ago.
The group was found by Australian Federal Police in Tasmania.
Ms Yelland, who recorded the reunion for Channel 7's Today Tonight, said the wait for news of her children's whereabouts was heartbreaking.
"My heart ached all the time," she said."I was actually very scared for their safety, I was very concerned."
Earlier Mr Robertson told how the day after handing his stolen children back to his ex-wife, he wanted one last hug.
But Ms Yelland made sure he got nowhere near the children as they were hurried away from the back of their Hobart hotel.
"They looked like they were being led to an operating theatre to have their vocal chords removed," Mr Robertson said yesterday.
He was only allowed to speak to them briefly on the telephone yesterday morning and didn't know when he would see them again.
Mr Robertson, 59, a disability pensioner, pondered a future without his Blue Mountains home after possession of it was given to his wife by the Family Court while the children were missing.
Uniting Church minister David Millikin, who had a video camera and said he was working for Today Tonight, was understood to have shot the footage of the reunion.
It was at one of Mr Millikin's services at Bronte that Mr Robertson met his wife more than 15 years ago.
Mr Millikin, an expert on cults, introduced the couple to the Australian spokesman for controversial sect The Family, Paul Hartingdon.
Mr Millikin is a supporter of The Family and gave evidence for the group after the Department of Community Services took 72 of their children during dramatic dawn raids in 1996, only to be ordered to hand them back by the courts.
Yesterday Mr Hartingdon said he was friends with both Mr Robertson and Ms Yelland but they were not members of The Family.
The children, whisked through Sydney airport by Mr Millikin, appeared bewildered by such a whirlwind day.
The tug of love hit the news after the Family Court appealed for help from the public to find the children, releasing their names and photographs.
Mr Robertson remained defiant, saying he had not kidnapped the children but had given them 24 hours to decide what they wanted to do and they told him they wanted to run away.
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