A Cowes mother was reunited with her 17-month-old baby – who had been kidnapped at gunpoint – on 9th December 1974.
32-year-old Rosamonde Heib had chased the man in her nightdress after he had snatched her baby Helmut, but the man had leapt into a car and sped off into the night.
The baby was found in Ryde 11 hours later after a massive police search.
Mrs Heib had been hiding on the Island with her mother from her estranged German husband – who was employed by a German oil company.
37-year-old Herbert Heib appeared before magistrates at Newport on 13th December.
He had paid a pilot £500 to fly him to Germany, but his plan was foiled by the baby crying, “Mummy, Mummy” after he had taken him.
Miss Margaret White, defending, said:
“They were both crying and it came into his mind that he could not possibly take him back to Germany as the little boy was obviously missing his mother.”
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Mr John Ellis, prosecuting, said that Rosamonde had obtained an injunction preventing Herbert from interfering with her or her child. When this expired and before a fresh one arrived, Heib broke into the flat where his wife was staying.
Mrs Heib woke to find him in the bedroom. He produced a revolver, but his mother-in-law persuaded him to hand it over to her. Heib then grabbed his son and escaped in a waiting taxi. He was later found in a flat in Ryde with a woman he had employed as a nanny.
Miss White said in mitigation:
“He is devoted to this little boy.”
Heib of Lusentaalsaar, Germany, admitted having a firearm and ammunition without a certificate and entering premises as a trespasser with the gun.
He was fined £100 with the alternative of 80 days imprisonment and conditionally discharged for 2 years.
Taxi driver Derek Chartres – who told Police he had taken Heib and the baby to Fishbourne when he had taken them to Ryde – was fined £20.
Chartres, of Albert Street Cowes, admitted wilfully obstructing Police in the execution of their duty.
As a result of what Chartres had told them, Police wasted time questioning the crew of the ferry and circulating ports with a description of Heib and the baby.
A fine and conditional discharge for breaking and entering and kidnap at gunpoint. I wonder what today’s keyboard warriors will make of that, and their shrieks of lacklustre judiciary.
In reality, it was an attempted international parental child abduction. In 1980, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction came into force and led to the 1984 Child Abduction Act. The former provided mechanisms for the return of children abducted by a parent living in another jurisdiction which took into account the best interests of the child. The 1984 Act provided criminal routes for dealing with such matters. Sadly, neither of these were available when this abduction occurred but it seems self evident that both parents were mindful of the child’s needs and best interests and these are rarely served by criminalising one parent when they both want what they believe is best for the child.
Another great interesting article.
3 years before I came to the island.