Judge orders search for kidnapped boy

A HIGH COURT judge yesterday launched a nation-wide search for a 12-year-old boy kidnapped from his home in France by his father and a three-man gang.

Oliver Malkin was getting off his school bus on Monday afternoon when three men held back his grandmother and two uncles who had gone to meet him. He was bundled into a car by his father, Peter Malkin, 54, a country club owner from Kent. His grandmother was dragged along the road by the car.

Lawyers for the boy's mother, Eliza Pridmore, believe Oliver will be brought back to England.

Deputy High Court judge Hugh Bennett QC, yesterday ordered Mr Malkin's arrest for breach of a court order not to remove Oliver from the care of his former wife, who lives at Landevant, near Lorient, Brittany.

Oliver is a ward of court, but the judge lifted reporting restrictions and appealed to anyone with information about the boy and his father to contact their local police.

It was the third time Oliver had been abducted by force. On the first occasion, when his divorced parents were still living in England, he was traced to Devon.

Mrs Pridmore, 36, and her husband Andrew Pridmore moved to France to escape the threat, but Oliver was snatched again by his father and a group of men using CS gas.

He was missing for 19 months before police found him and his father hiding in a secret attic room at Mr Malkin's home in Canterbury.