Police inquiry to be made after baby taken from London police station

December 21, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

An independent police commission will investigate how police officers were tricked into handing over a baby to a stranger.

Police officers at a police station in Walworth, London failed to check the identification of a woman that claimed to be a friend of the mother of eighteen-month-old Audrey Kessie Nyanor last Thursday. This led to a 72-hour manhunt and the safe capture of the woman and baby.

Last Thursday, officers were investigating a man who had failed to appear in court. They didn’t find their man, but arrested another occupant, Cynthia Boakye, on alleged immigration offences and took baby Audrey into custody.

The Press Association reported that arrangements were made to have a relative pick up the baby, and after a number of phone calls, a woman posing as a relative arrived around 10:30 that morning to take the baby. Careworker Agatha Owsuah told the Press Association that she thought the woman somehow overheard one of the phone conversations, catching the name of one of the relatives in the process.

“The details she gave to police corresponded with the name of the woman Audrey’s mother had told police would pick up her daughter, and as a result she left the police station with the child at approximately 10:40 a.m.,” a police spokesman told the PA.

“Subsequently it became apparent the woman was not the same person who had been organized to pick up the child. As a result a police investigation began to find Audrey, and to identify and trace the woman who took her.”

The police eventually found the alleged abductor and baby Audrey in Harlesden, North West London after CCTV spotted them at a Tube station.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission will launch an investigation into how the woman was able to persuade officers to hand the baby over to her. Yesterday it was revealed that a lapse in judgment led to the failure of an identity check.

“All the time in this country they check your identity,” Careworker Owsuah told the PA. “They ask for my ID when I take money from the bank, they ask for ID before you can get a job. They should have asked for ID before handing over a human being to someone.”

“Her ID should have been checked,” a police spokesperson told The Sun. “This matter remains far from solved.”