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The boy who went missing from his bed: Abduction fears rise with Mikaeel Kular's third night away from home
33-year-old woman arrested and charged in connection with death of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular after discovery of body in Kirkcaldy
(about 11 hours later)
The long human line snaked across the muddy field and slowly inched its way forward. Hundreds of volunteers had come down to the beach at Silverknowe by the Firth of Forth on a grey and chilly day where in happier times three-year-old Mikaeel Kular might have played with his brothers and sisters.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Edinburgh to search for three-year-old Mikaeel Kular, in a mood of optimism that it was only a matter of time before he was found. But on Saturday night police were trying to work out how he ended up dead in woods nearly 30 miles away.
They were looking for anything that might indicate where the missing boy was and hoping against hope that he was still alive.
Police confirmed that a 33-year-old woman had been arrested and charged as part of the investigation into the death of Mikaeel, whose body they confirmed they found earlier in Kirkcaldy, Fife. They said the woman would appear at Edinburgh Sheriffs Court on Monday morning. The developments were described by Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, as “the news we have all been dreading”.
Officially, it is believed still possible that Mikaeel got up on Wednesday night after being put to bed by his mother at their flat in the Drylaw area of Edinburgh, dressed himself before making his way out of the door of their first floor flat and buzzing his way past a heavy communal security entrance before disappearing into the chilly winter night.
As detectives attempted to piece together the events that led up to, and followed, Mikaeel’s disappearance, community leaders in Edinburgh urged people not to jump to conclusions about what had happened.
However, last night police conceded publicly for the first time that equally he could have been the victim of a criminal act and they are gravely worried about his welfare. Assistant Chief Constable Michael Graham said: “It remains possible that he left home on his own accord. It is also a possibility that there could be other factors involved in his disappearance.”
However, social media were awash with unsubstantiated speculation about the death; police said they were aware of racist comments on Twitter. At least one person, from the Greater Manchester area, was being investigated over an allegedly offensive tweet.
News of a possible sighting of a boy matching Mikaeel’s description running alone close to a community centre not far from his home on Thursday morning briefly offered some hope that the more optimistic scenario might yet be borne out.
Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said the body of a young child was recovered in Fife just before midnight. Forensics were later on site
But the witnesses who were in a vehicle passing by also reported the child was wearing a cap or hat and police said no items of headwear were missing from the family flat. Mikaeel did not like wearing a hat, police said. The sighting was not confirmed. CCTV footage from the front of the modern apartment block had also failed to yield any evidence of his leaving the building.
Ms Kular, a mother of five, had told detectives that she discovered her son was missing on Thursday morning after putting him to bed the previous night. His brown jacket, multicoloured gloves and shoes were gone.
Police refuse to be drawn on the timeline of events leading up to Mikaeel disappearance although it emerged last night he had been off nursery with a chest infection since before Christmas.
Initially police said Mikaeel might have left the flat by himself, but neighbours expressed doubts that a child of three would have been capable of opening the heavy main door to the apartment block.
The volunteers had come from across Edinburgh and even further afield yesterday to help in the search, eager to do whatever they could to expedite Mikaeel’s safe return. Groups of local women with pushchairs, middle class mums, workplace colleagues, elderly couples with sticks, dog walkers, neighbours - they all trudged solemnly along, their eyes cast downwards.
The charges followed the discovery of the body late on Friday night. Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham, who looked visibly shaken when announcing the news a short time later, Almost 24 hours later they confirmed the body was indeed that of Mikaeel”.
But optimism was waning.
“A person has been detained in connection with the recovery of the body and members of Mikaeel’s family have been informed of the recovery,” he said. “Our thoughts and sympathies are with them at this time.”
“Most people think he has been abducted,” acknowledged Barry Johnson, 43, a fairground worker who lives on the same street as the Kulars. “But the police must think he is out there. People are out looking - so we just hope,” he added. Unsurprisingly in such a baffling case, social media rumours have been rife.
ACC Graham praised the community in North Edinburgh who turned in large numbers to help search for the missing child before his body was discovered. He said a further 500 calls had been received from the public looking to help officers with their inquiries.
John Benson, 48, had searched all day Thursday and was taking another day off work to join the hunt. “It doesn’t seem right. There are too many stories floating around,” he said. “If he had been out since 9pm on Wednesday why has no one stopped him and taken him home? It is a long time for a child to be missing like this,” he added.
Members of the public lay tributes in Ferry Gate Crescent near the home of Mikaeel Kular
Philip Clark, 43, had driven over from Glasgow. Originally from Liverpool he helped in the searches for James Bulger in 1993. “In that case he was right on the doorstep of the police station. But children do wander off. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack and the worst thing is that this is near water. But you have to start looking somewhere,” he said.
Others chose not to question what might have happened and just get on with the painstaking process of helping the police search teams. Juliette Elvins said the reason she and a group of mothers had made the journey was simple. “We’ve got kids. We are just here hoping that we can find him alive. We are not speculating on anything. The more legs and eyes the better,” she said.
More than 200 volunteers had answered the call from police to focus public searches so that areas of wasteland – the seashore and a local caravan park could be eliminated from the inquiry. Local firefighters searched through the thick undergrowth whilst closer to Mikaeel’s family home where it was feared forensic evidence might be destroyed, police officers took the lead.
Mikaeel in the jacket police believe he was wearing when he disappeared
Helicopters hovered above the north Edinburgh suburbs built to house the city’s 20th century overflow and now home to three generations of families.
The house in Kirkcaldy and nearby woods were cordoned off by police as forensic teams scoured the area on Saturday. At about 4pm, an ambulance reported to be carrying the boy’s body was seen leaving the area.
Mikaeel’s mother Rosdeep, a 33-year-old beautician, had lived at the flat for a number of years. The daughter of a local doctor she was separated from the two fathers of her children – one reported to be a Nigerian taxi driver who lived nearby, the other a man of Pakistani origin. Police said she was “very distraught” and just wanted her son back. Volunteers were urged to reconvene again on Saturday to take part in a third day of searches.
Ms Kular, a beauty therapist, is said to have separated from a man she married in her early twenties and was living with a new partner. She previously wrote a light-hearted post about herself online, saying that she lived with “just me, myself and I ... oh yeah, with a brood of five monsters, six if you count the man indoors!”
What is the The Child Rescue Alert system?
A steady stream of mourners left flowers and cuddly toys near the Kular family home in Ferry Gait Crescent, in the Drylaw area of Edinburgh. One note read: “This is so sad and a great loss to our street in Ferry Gait Crescent.”
The Child Rescue Alert (CRA) system provides a nationwide hotline number to prioritise the rapid dissemination of vital information that may assist in the recovery of a missing child in high profile cases.
For two days, hundreds of local people had turned out to help search for Mikaeel, spending hours scouring the local streets and nearby coastline. Frank Arthur, 72, who lives in the flat above Ms Kular, said that he was finding the news “difficult to come to terms with”. “Everybody has been rooting for that little kid. There’s an awful lot of people who gave up time to go out and look for him.”
It has only been triggered in the UK once before Police Scotland deployed the system this week in the search for missing Mikaeel Kular. It was previously used in the hunt for April Jones who was abducted whilst playing outside her home in Machynlleth in October 2012. She was never found although her killer, local alcoholic paedophile Mark Bridger, was arrested and subsequently convicted of her murder.
Irvine Welsh, the author, who grew up in the area and had repeatedly taken to Twitter to encourage local people to help “bring the wee man hame”, also expressed his sorrow. “So sad about wee Mikaeel but couldn’t be more proud of where I come from & the amazing people there who tried everything to help out,” he tweeted.
Last year there were 532 abductions in the UK, the overwhelming majority of which had a clear evidence trail. The figure has halved in the past six years and abductions of very young children are particularly rare. CRA is modelled on the AMBER system - America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response - which was first deployed in the United States in 1997 the year after the abduction, rape and murder of nine year old Amber Hagerman. Information that could have helped in finding Amber was later discovered by the local law enforcement agencies although the authorities had no way of distributing this to those looking for her.
Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, the two-year-old murdered in Liverpool in 1993, tweeted her condolences, saying: “My heart is aching for that poor boy Mikaeel Kular brings it all back so sad.”
CRA is run by the National Crime Agency and is compatible with other European alert systems. It uses a single number - 0300 2000 333 – which is answered by a local police officer who will be briefed on the case and cross check information on national crime databases. It is only activated if there is suspicion that a child has been taken or is in imminent danger. If a caller is believed to have a relevant lead – such as the description of a car or a possible sighting - the information will be passed directly to the senior investigating officer leading the hunt for the missing child. This speeds up the flow of communications and reduces unnecessary if well-intentioned calls, clogging up fast-moving inquiries.
The Scottish parliamentarian Colin Keir, who had helped to look for Mikaeel, said the local community in Edinburgh was feeling “battered and bruised”. He added: “I know exactly how these people are feeling. It’s difficult not to get personally involved.” But Mr Keir urged people not to let their emotions result in a rush to judgement.
Jonathan Brown
“There’s a post-mortem that has to happen. We need to find out how the young Mikaeel died and when he died, then we can start piecing things together,” he said.
Local councillor Cammy Day, who was due to speak at a memorial service for the young boy at a local church on Saturday night, said the community was “absolutely devastated”.
He praised the “wonderful, strong community spirit” displayed during the search for the boy, and said he hoped it would not be damaged by “the odd few ridiculous comments” made on social media.
“I’m hopeful there will be no repercussions locally. I know the police are doing something on that,” Mr Day said. “We should not be making any assumptions, we should be leaving the investigation to police.”
