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Toddler taken from police found | Toddler taken from police found |
(10 minutes later) | |
An 18-month old girl who police mistakenly allowed to be taken by an impostor from a station has been found. | An 18-month old girl who police mistakenly allowed to be taken by an impostor from a station has been found. |
Audrey Kessie Nyanor's mother, Cynthia Boakye, 36, was arrested on Thursday in Southwark, south London, over alleged immigration offences. | |
A woman claiming she was a friend of Ms Boakye went to Walworth police station and took the toddler. | |
The child has since been found by police at an address in north London. A 30-year-old woman has been arrested. | |
'Great mistake' | |
Audrey is currently in the care of officers at the west London police station. | |
Earlier, Audrey's grandmother Agatha Owsuah, 54, of Peckham, south-east London, said the police made a "great mistake". | |
She said Audrey's mother should have been asked to confirm the woman's identity before the toddler was handed over. | |
They should have asked for ID before handing over a human being to someone Agatha Owsuah | |
"All the time in this country they check your identity," she said. | |
"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." | |
The child went missing after officers went to an address in Walworth to make inquiries about a man wanted for failing to appear at court. | |
He was not in, but police arrested Ms Boakye and took the pair to Walworth police station. | |
Mrs Owsuah said an officer asked her daughter who they could call to look after the toddler. | |
Phone call 'overheard' | |
"Cynthia gave them a relative's number but the officer would not let her call and went outside the room to make the phone call," the grandmother said. | |
She thinks someone overheard that phone call and then came back to the police station pretending to be the relative and was given Audrey. | |
She said the woman who took Audrey gave a different address to the one the relative gave over the phone. | |
A police spokesman said: "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." | |
Mrs Owsuah's husband, Eric Obeng, 48, said police arrested him and several other relatives and friends the day after Audrey was taken but later bailed them without charge. | |
He said: "They thought we had taken the child. Why would we do that? | |
"Why would we take our own child? The police were wasting time." | |
Audrey's mother was later released on bail. | |
The Metropolitan Police has begun an internal inquiry into what happened. |