Abducted baby comes home

Sunday 16 August 1992 23:02 BST
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FARRAH QULI, the baby snatched from her parents by a bogus child minder, returned home last night to a rapturous welcome from family and friends.

Her mother, Bernadette, said the homecoming was 'brilliant.'

Hundreds came out of their houses in Holland Road, Plaistow, east London, to greet the six-month-old who was abducted from her home on Thursday. As Farrah arrived with her parents who had brought her back from the Irish Republic where she was found, family, friends and neighbours broke into applause. The trio rushed past the welcoming party and into the small terraced house festooned with banners, streamers and balloons.

Once inside, the real celebrations began with Farrah being hugged and kissed by all. Her father, Shane, and his wife then presented the baby to the crowd. When asked what it felt like to be home, Mr Quli, 31, gestured to the scenes of celebration and said: 'Do I really need to answer that?'

Mrs Quli's sister, Rosie, took the baby in her arms and said: 'Everybody just wants to be near Farrah'. Earlier, as the three prepared to fly back from Ireland, Mr Quli told reporters: 'All our nightmares are history now - we're in fairyland.'

His daughter had not been harmed in any way, he said, and the couple were 'grateful that she abducted her and not someone else. The woman was the 'right' abductor, if there is such a thing'. Mrs Quli, 24, said that the first moment she saw her daughter again, lying asleep in Limerick Regional Hospital on Saturday evening, was 'like giving birth all over again. It was very, very emotional'.

Plain clothes detectives who co-ordinated the search all through Friday night and Saturday seemed almost as moved as they cradled the small child.

Mr Quli said he was relieved when he heard his daughter had been taken to Ireland, where he knew from past visits that there was an integrated community likely to help find her.

(Photograph omitted)

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