A VICTORIAN mum has been reunited with her young son in a daring commando-style raid on a Greek island.
Diane Livingstone paid a paramilitary recovery team more than $50,000
to help her grab five-year-old Theo on the island of Kalymnos.
The dramatic rescue ended a 14-month ordeal for Ms Livingstone after Theo was abducted by his father during a visit to Greece.
The mother and son are now in hiding after returning to southeast Victoria four weeks ago.
It is believed Ms Livingstone took out a loan to hire an international security firm to organise and execute the snatch.
The operation took weeks of planning and just a split second for Ms
Livingstone to grab her child back as he walked along a quiet road in
Kalymnos.
"I got him myself," she said yesterday.
"You do what you have to do -- it can be done. I just had to take it into my own hands.
"I hired people to recover him. I just organised it myself."
In May, the Herald Sun revealed Ms Livingstone's anguish after former husband Nick abducted Theo in July last year.
"I will never give up," she said at the time.
"I will do anything to get him back."
For months, Ms Livingstone battled Greek authorities for her son's return to Australia.
She knew where Theo was living but was unable to get local police to act.
In desperation she called children's support organisation Hug Ur Kids
which put her in contact with international child recovery
company (NAME WITHELD).
"We put Diane in touch with the people who helped," Hug Ur Kids founder Geoff Day said.
"It was a snatch back. They were ex -military."
Mr Day said Ms Livingstone met an ex-military Australian employee of Trojan Securities who accompanied her to Greece.
There they met another ex-military recovery specialist and travelled to Kalymnos, near Rhodes, in the eastern Mediterranean.
Theo was living on the island with his father and his grandparents.
After a week of surveillance, a plan was hatched to grab Theo from his
grandmother as they walked along a street in the tiny village of Agios
Nikolaos.
About 3pm on the chosen day, Diane leapt from a hired car, pulled Theo from his screaming grandmother and sped off.
A speed boat rushed them to the nearby island of Kos where they were met by a plane and taken to Athens.
They stayed in Athens for a couple of days before flying to Australia.
Mr Day said Ms Livingstone was temporarily detained at Athens airport
but, with the assistance of the Australian Government, was eventually
allowed to fly home with her son.
Speaking yesterday from her country home, Ms Livingstone said it had been a tough time.
"But my son's here. He's just so beautiful," she said.
"He's remarkably well. It's not really sunk in. It's been really traumatic.
"It's like he's never been away."
Now Ms Livingstone just wants life with Theo to return to normal.
"I just want him to start school. I'll tell him about it all when he's older."
Source: The Heraldsun Newspaper
By NICK PAPPS
28sep02
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