Kidnap father ordered to return son

A FATHER who kidnapped his 12-year-old son was yesterday ordered by the boy's official solicitor to return him to his mother immediately.

Peter Malkin, 54, a wealthy businessman, and his son, Oliver, who is a ward of court, were discovered staying in a luxury hotel at the Egyptian resort of Hurghada, on the Red Sea.

Peter Harris, the official solicitor for Oliver, said yesterday he was considering sending a representative to Egypt to escort Oliver back to the home of his mother, Elisa Pridmore, in France.

A High Court sequestration process has also begun to seize Mr Malkin's assets in an attempt to force him to comply.

In a statement, Mr Harris said: 'My first concern is that Mr Malkin should comply with the orders of the High Court and return Oliver to his mother immediately. Mr Malkin is in serious contempt of court and I have issued sequestration proceedings to take control of all his assets in order to get him to obey the court's orders.'

Oliver was snatched a month ago for the third time and in breach of a court order. He was seized as he stepped off a school bus near his mother's home in Landevant, Brittany.

But Mr Malkin said he acted in Oliver's interest because the boy wanted to live with him in England. They hoped to return to Britain 'before Christmas'.

Oliver has told reporters: 'I love my dad and he loves me. We want to be together and that is why he had to take me. I want to be with him. Everyone thinks he is bad, but his only wish is that I can be with him.'

However, Mrs Pridmore's second husband, Andrew Pridmore, claimed Oliver had been under pressure to say what he did.

Oliver's mother was awarded custody when she and Mr Malkin divorced in 1989 after nine years of marriage. Her solicitor, Gill Noury, said: 'Mrs Pridmore is desperate. She thinks it is awful to put Oliver on show - it is like a circus.'

The businessman had broken cover because he knows he will lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in sequestration proceedings, Ms Noury added.

(Photograph omitted)