Mum tells of horror as she saw CCTV of tot being led out of Primark just like tragic James Bulger
THE mum of a two-year-old girl snatched from Primark by two sisters has told of the terrifying moment she realised her daughter had gone.
The 29-year-old described how her “world stopped” when she saw CCTV images of the teenagers leading her daughter out of the store by the hand.
The mum had raised the alarm when she could not hear her girl’s happy laughter. Shop staff thought she was just hiding.
But her mother’s instinct that something awful had happened was confirmed when she saw footage of the abduction.
The mum said: “I was so overwhelmed at losing my baby that I could have hurled myself down a flight of stairs.
“The feeling of sudden separation from your child cannot be put into words. It’s the worst thing that any mother can experience and it was suddenly happening to me.
“To see the girls lead her away was unbearable.
“It was happening right in front of me but I was helpless.
“I was in a state of shock. The world just stopped.
“All of a sudden I realised those pictures of my daughter looked exactly like the little boy, James Bulger. He was taken in the same way and never came back to his poor mother. I shut down, it was like having a nightmare but I still knew it was real.”
Tragic James was snatched from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993 then tortured and killed by ten-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
The little girl, who is black, was taken from Primark in Newcastle’s Northumberland Street then led to a nearby Metro station.
The sisters, 13 and 14, had looked up rape, abduction and “African woman sexual activity” online.
A huge search was launched and the girl was found unharmed 90 minutes later.
The sisters claimed the tot had followed them and they were taking her back to her mum.
But they admitted kidnap and were last week jailed for three years and three months.
The mum first saw them on the store’s second floor on April 13.
But she did not think anything was wrong when they started chatting to her daughter.
The mum, who we are not identifying, said: “They looked normal, ordinary, and seemed nice and friendly.
“My daughter was walking beside me out of her pushchair and they told me, ‘She’s really cute’.
“One offered her sweets. She took the packet but I made her give them back as she had just eaten.
“My daughter was laughing. She’s a happy, cheerful girl and that is the sound I hear from her most often.
“The girls continued to talk to her and she was running around about two or three feet from me as I looked at some clothes.
“A moment or two later I realised I couldn’t hear her laughter and I had a very strong feeling that something was wrong.
“I looked around everywhere and I couldn’t see her.
“Even at that stage I didn’t suspect the girls had her. Who would? They were only children themselves.
“I asked a member of staff for help. She told me to go to the other side of the store, saying, ‘She’s probably hiding over there in the clothes racks’. I desperately wanted to believe her but I had a terrible feeling.
“I know my daughter and if I’m out of her sight for a few moments she cries. But there was no sound at all, nothing. She had vanished in the blink of an eye.
“The staff told me to stay where I had last seen her in case she came back and they began to search the store, floor by floor.
“I can’t say how long it took but when they said they couldn’t find her I became completely distraught.
“It was said in court that I was so distressed I began beating my head against a wall, but I don’t even remember doing that.
“I remembered the girls and I mentioned them to staff who called the police.”
She gave officers a description of her daughter, whose hair was bound into tight braids.
A picture of her daughter she had taken an hour earlier was also circulated to officers.
Police examined store CCTV and found footage of the sisters leading the tot away by the hand.
In seconds they were at the lifts, keeping her behind them so she was out of sight.
At the Haymarket rail station they caught a train to Gosforth. There they tried to go into a soft play area in a shopping centre then headed to a park.
Cops found them soon after. The mum said: “I broke down sobbing when they told me she was safe but I needed to see her for myself.
“It seemed to take forever before they carried her into the shop.
“She came running to me and cried, ‘Mummy, my Mummy’.
“I scooped her up and held her so tightly.”
Oddly the girl’s hair had been restyled into a bun. Doctors checked her over and confirmed she was unharmed.
Police later found an iPad the younger sister was given for Christmas contained 402 searches that were pornographic in nature.
They included “forced sex,” “slavery”, “girls collected and trained”, and “people getting raped”.
It emerged the sisters had earlier tried to abduct another black two-year-old in the same store.
The mum said: “What happened in the time my daughter was with the girls still troubles me. She appears to have come to no harm but they’d played with her hair and their intentions are frightening.
“I went to court expecting to hear answers which might have helped me to come to terms with this, but they gave none.
“Even when the judge asked them to give evidence in court they refused and stayed silent.
“It means I have the thoughts of what they intended in my head all the time. I have nightmares where I wake up convinced my daughter is gone again.
“She now doesn’t leave my side and we sleep in the same bed so when I wake from these nightmares I can see her straight away and know she is safe.
“The effects of that day I will be feeling for a long time to come.”
Despite the ordeal, she feels no bitterness towards the sisters’ mum.
She said: “I do feel for their mother, it must have had an enormous impact on her life too. It is a nightmare on both sides.
“She must never have imagined her children would go out and take someone else’s child.
“I don’t think any parent would imagine their child capable of such a thing.”
The prosecution accepted that the younger sister had been groomed online by a man who has never been tracked down.
He directed her to vile porn sites and the girls claimed he first suggested they take a child.
Mr Justice Globe told Newcastle crown court he believed that had police not found the youngster she would have been physically or sexually harmed.
Her mum is now determined to treasure every moment with her.
She added: “We have to be so careful, especially now that the school holidays have begun. I would urge all parents to keep their children in front of them where they can see them every single second, don’t take your eyes off them.
“And parents of teenagers, ask yourselves, ‘How well do I know my child, how much do I know about what is happening in their lives?’.
“There are so many ways now that people can communicate with children and that means parents have to be more aware than ever before about who their kids are talking to.”