Missing baby found after police search abduction

A five-month-old baby who was taken from her home by a mysterious house guest was found safe and well by police yesterday.

Rhianne Bethany Crutchley was reunited with her 20-year-old mother following a huge police search at Willenhall in the West Midlands. The alarm had been raised at 8am yesterday when the child's mother, Lyndsey Nesbitt, found that Rhianne had been taken, apparently by a woman who had been invited to stay the night. The woman, not previously known to Ms Nesbitt, had knocked on the door of her council maisonette the night before, offering baby clothes.

Dozens of police scoured the area, conducted house-to-house inquiries and mobilised a helicopter with thermal imaging equipment in case Rhianne had been abandoned.

Shortly after 2pm, officers acting on a tip-off arrested a man at an address in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham. Minutes later, a vehicle was stopped nearby and Rhianne was recovered from inside.

A 23-year-old woman was last night charged with abducting a five-month- old baby from a home in Willenhall, police said.