The girls with their mother, Laura
I sat down to watch last night’s 60 Minutes’ interview with both parents at the centre of the Italian custody battle over their four daughters not knowing who to believe. I came out the other side with two thoughts:
1. What a mess. There are no winners in family court disputes.
2. Tara Brown kicked some serious arse.
Tara Brown, outstanding.
In more polite terms, Tara Brown delivered one of the strongest interviews of the year, making her distaste for the emotional, mental and physical manipulation of the four young girls clearly felt. Particularly towards the girls’ mother, grandmother and great grandmother.
Some parts of Tara’s interview with the girls’ mother Laura were a train wreck as their grandmother and great grandmother constantly interrupted Laura whose demenour was…..unusual. The two older women frequently tried to speak for her and justify some of their own shameful behaviour as the situation has disintegrated over the past few years, coming to an ugly head when the girls were forcibly put on a plane back to Italy several months ago.
If you haven’t seen the 60 Minutes’ interview, you can see it here.
And there were some fairly incredible revelations. From 60 Mins’ website:
The girls’ father Thomasso
It’s been the most public and bitter of family feuds – two parents, four children split across the world and splashed all over the media.
The story begins with a desperate escape. Mum, Laura, flees Italy and her allegedly violent Italian husband, to return home with the couple’s four daughters.
Two years later, the Australian Federal Police arrive on the doorstep and literally drag the children onto a plane back to Italy.
Watching those girls struggle against the police and scream for their mother, it all seemed so heavy handed and so wrong.
But there are two sides to every story and this Sunday night for the first time, you’ll hear what Dad’s got to say.
And there’s a third player in this sorry tale: the Australian government which knowingly aided and abetted an international kidnap.
60 Minutes put several questions to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). These were how they answered them (from the 60 Mins website):
So what did I come away with? Many shades of grey. It was certainly illuminating to see the father give his side of the story and to see both parents portrayed as human, instead of the pixilated non-identities they have been up until now.
I understand that a technicality – purported to be the fact that this custody case is the jurisdiction of the Italian family court – was used to allow 60 Minutes (and some print media) to circumvent the usual strict laws which prohibit the identification of anyone involved in a family court dispute.
To me – and my opinion is based on nothing more than what I saw last night and what I’ve picked up about the case having followed it over the past year or so – there are no winners but many questions and no simple answers.
However for a story so complex (journo nerd moment here), I think it was magnificently, sensitivitely and smartly told. Props to Tara Brown and producers Gareth Harvey and Steven Burling
Did you see the story? What did you come away thinking?
Comments
179 Comments so far
Its funny how Australian mothers always run out “he abuses the children” statement in divorce matters. For police who have to investigate such allegations it has become a tiresome and about 99% of time an unfounded allegation. As soon as she said to the media that the father abused the kids I knew she was lying. The mother and her family have done a massive disservice to the real cases of parental abuse, who will believe the abused now?
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99% of the time an unfounded allegation?? You make me so angry. Did you even read yesterday’s post on White Ribbon Day? Perhaps you should go and have a read.
In this case the mother was lying but you are a horrible person if you tar everyone with the same brush, especially after yesterday’s post. Perhaps you should go and comment on all of the comments and tell those women they are liars.
Think before you comment next time.
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Women like this mother – are the REASON, others tar women with the same brush. It’s not right….but it’s the reason.
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I have a brother who was accused by his step daughter of sexual and physical abuse. This happened over a number of years and the police and councellors were involved. The teen would eventually admit she was lying about this to get her mothers attention. My brother swore his innocents over all these allegations for years.
However when the marriage broke down and the mother became depressed and caught up in her own problems, again the teen daughter brought up the sexuall allegations. Only this time the mother, now ex partner backed her up. This turned ugly ugly ugly. My brother was arrested, bailed – had to report to police stations etc. went through numerous adjournments and a trail and verdict day. Eventually two years later was found guilty and sent to jail for 18 months. He served 13 before the his appeal was won. Only upon a new statement of the step daughter that she had once again lied. All to get some of her mothers attention. My brothers sentence has been revoked and his criminal record cleared. How these lies so easily slip off the tongue to get some quick attention by young girls and seperated wives and mothers. They do not realise the devastating effects it has on not only the accused but their families. My brothers life long income and job prospects are now negatively impacted and my mother and father are financially struggling at a time very close to their retirement as they had to offer financial assistance. I dont know the statisticts on every case of abuse and until this happened to my family I would have been a strong and loud supporter of all victims. I now know it can be a false allegation and all cases need carefull consideration and investigation by authorities. That said the legal system needs looking at.. in our case alot of the teens prior allegations to police and councillors and prior troubles couldnt be brought up in court or used as evidence, when to us it clearly painted a picture of a teen who was unstable and in need of help and this was her way of getting the attention she needed.
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I don’t envy the individuals who are responsible for making life altering decisions such as this, who is innocent of the accusations and who is not. But people do make mistakes and the system does get it wrong.
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And I bet you my house nothing happened to the mother and step daughter. A year in prison as a child abuser isn’t going to be fun. Even when he was cleared, you can imagine the dark cloud following him everywhere. Hard to get a job after being in jail, especially for child abuse, even if you tell people you were proved innocent.
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Its such a common complaint in divorce matters that most sex crimes units now ask a mother if she is in any family court dispute with a father – as soon as she says yes they tear up the complaint and dont proceed. Some very avaricious lawyers advise mothers to make the accusation as it will drag out court proceedings and become a far better earner for the lawyer concerned. Some women are jusr plain vindictive and assume that their wasting of police time at the expense of their ex partners life is an acceptable way to get revenge. If they knew about the abuse during the marriage any sane and caring mother would make sure their children were immediately protected – shame so many only remember when court proceedings have commenced.
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Sorry, but the mother even said there was no abuse when put on the spot. Sad, sad. But this is why there is The Hague convention. You cannot steal children even if they are your own. The three women manipulated the Australian media whilst the children were in Aust. And like everyone else, I have to ask, why isn’t the mother in Italy to be with the children?
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Laura said in the interview she couldn’t return to Italy because there were criminal charges pending against her for removing the children as per the Hague Convention.
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As part of the court judgement the father agreed not to pursue charges/complaint against the mother. There may well be valid financial reasons for not wanting to return, but the judge in the case did as much as he could to ensure she would not face legal charges.
Though I think the Italian justice system should be allowed to file charges if they want to and extradite her if that is necessary. Just because they are your kids doesn’t stop it from being kidnapping.
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Definitely no winners in this situation. Really not sure what to make of it.
Not usually a fan of Tara Brown’s interviews, but she was fantastic.
The girls should be able to say which parent they would prefer to live with.
So sad.
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Agree that Tara aced that interview.
Sorry, don’t agree that the children should be able to choose, when their choice has obviously been impacted by the vitriol and lies from 3 generations of women – Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother.
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How incredibly sad. Tara did a great interview, I thought she dealt with the grandmothers brilliantly and rightly called them out on their behavior. How could the girls feel good about going home to their father if they have been piosenedby those women for the last year and a bit. If the situation were reversed we would be screaming for the children to be returned. I know too many dads who have ‘lost’ their children to mothers who don’t have their childrens best interests at heart. I feel for the mum, as she was very young having her family and getting married in a foriegn country but she broke the law and did the wrong thing, despite who helped her. I hate to judge, but if that were me, I would have boarded the plane with my children and helped them through the traumatic process instead of screaming and making the while situation worse. There are no winners in this situations and those poor girls have definitely lost most of all.
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Alison, I completely agree with you. That mother had a responsiblity to thise children to make there inevitable return to Italy as painless as possible. Had she have acted as a responsible parent and helped instead of hindered the AFP. Kids tend to feed off parents emotions to so hysterically running and crying did help the situation at all.
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Before we go jumping to conclusions regarding the mother and how she feels based on her appearance, can we please remember Lindy Chamberlin and how wrong everyone was then?
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I wouldn’t want to watch Tara Brown interviewing, say, Ted Bundy. She seemed entirely biased and completely swayed by the husband’s broken English and harmless victim stance.
While the female relations were unpleasant, and the mother a bit odd, I thought it very poor journalism to be so entranced by one side of the story.
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Channel nine….biased interviewing….that never happens!
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All we have heard so far has been one side of the story so I thought it was the perfect counter weight.
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I thought it was a great interview by Tara Brown and she asked the mother, grandmother and greatgrandmother the question that I really wanted answered – what sort of person would put their child through all that drama and incite such fear?? Having lost her court case, the mother should have put aside her own feelings and done everything in her power to take her daughters back to Italy. If her allegations of abuse were credible then there are avenues she can pursue in Italy.
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Anyone else get a distinct ‘Corby’ vibe from the three women? Very strange behavior from all of them.
Tara Brown, what a class act
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Yes! Those were the first words out of my other half’s mouth when the interview finished “Gee aren’t they like the Corby family”.
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It was an extraordinary interview. The saddest thing to me, is the girls would have absorbed so much of their maternal family’s hysterical (and it appears, unfounded) antagonism towards their father that it would be impossible for them to grow up happily with him in their lives. Their mother broke all the rules (apparently with the help of our embassy) but will probably get what she wants – to live in Australia near her Mum and Grandma. That’s understandable, anyone who’s tried to raise a family a long way from home will know how hard and lonely it is. But there’s a right way and a wrong way and Ms Garrett took the wrong way – I suspect it will work because the girls cannot now be happy in Italy, but I wonder will they be happy anywhere with so much toxic air around them?
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But… did she not choose to make Italy her home in marrying an Italian man in Italy and having four children with him? Would it be her home as her four children are there and her life was made there by her own choice? Once you are a parent, is ‘home’ where you were raised and where your parents live? Or where you have put your own roots down?
(I understand that being expat with your partner – say in Singapore or HK or London for a temporary period is not home, but this is not such a case as that.)
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I rarely watch 60 Minutes but I’m glad I did last night. It was fascinating.
I’d say reading between the lines, Mum is the fun parent and Dad is the ‘do your homework, go to bed on time and do as you’re told’ parent. Both parents obviously love the girls to bits.
The phone message practically accusing the father of child abuse was astonishing. Even the mother had the grace to look embarrasssed at that point, although as someone else has pointed out, there wasn’t much movement in her face so it was hard to tell what was going on. No tears either. Odd.
The grandmother clearly has no respect for the father (car theft, anyone?) and whilst she might not like him that doesn’t mean it’s okay to take his kids to the other side of the world.
DFAT clearly have a lot of questions to answer. I wonder if they will.
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What a sorry mess. Like others, I think the mother was controlled by her role models (her mother and grand mother) and given space from them would probably be able to make better decisions. I do get why she hasn’t gone back to Italy though. If she hasn’t got money, a house or job, how would house arrest work? She probably hasn’t got a lot of support there either and has no doubt burned any bridges she did have.
I hope the girls can settle back to life with their dad, who if he is abusive is doing a damn good job of covering it up.
On a side note, I read of a UK man that kidnapped his Australian born children from his estranged wife, took them back to the UK, even though they had shared custody, applied and got custody of his kids, even though the UK judge didn’t find he was a “better parent” and was apparently disgusted with how he had gone about it. Interesting that we’re not hearing much about that one.
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some “dads” are damn good at covering up abuse and come out looking squeaky clean. My 2nd stepfather came from the bottom of the pile, but to the outside he was a “hardworking good man”. No one had any idea what he was doing and what he was capable of.
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I meant my 1st stepfather, my 2nd stepfather was just as bad towards my brother though anyway. And I didn’t say bottom of the pile, I said something worse than that, but moderators must know more about the man than me, cause he wasn’t just from the bottom of any pile, he was from the depths of hell.
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You could very well say the same of some so called “Mums”, abusers come in all shapes and sizes, male and female, from all different backgrounds. And emotional manipulation and intimidation is not gender specific either, these daughters have been used horribly by their mother and her family. Thrusting them into a media frenzy wouldn’t have helped them psychologically.
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yeah, you could say the same about some mums, of course, but I was talking about my particular experience, and that involved a “dad”. ok, not my mum.
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My point exactly, one person’s experience doesn’t necessarily reflect other people’s experiences, but I can see how emotions can cloud judgement.
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My judgement isn’t clouded thankyou, and I don’t think there is any need for you to say that to me. Just because I speak of MY experiences, doesn’t mean I need to add in every other scenario out there to please the masses.
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I don’t get bringing up personal experiences either, each case is different and can’t be compared. We don’t know this family personally so I don’t see the relevance of it other than to hint at this father hiding the abuse or something when it’s entirely possible he’s not and the mother is simply lying.
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Even though each case is different obviously, no one is denying that, I saw the relevance and commented. Have a nice day.
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Yes, sadly that’s true, some people are very good at covering what they’re really like up. It’s very sad and really, we’re just going off a pretty biased, no doubt heavily edited interview. The only people that know what really went on are that family and some people even then are excellent at self deception.
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Can I respectfully put it to you Mia, that if the genders of the parents were reversed and everything else was the same, you would not find the issue grey at all.
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Can I ask why you think that would be the case?
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Anonymous is the one who always reads these things then challenges it via a comment on gender role reversal in the way the article is presented.
So, yours is an excellent question Jayne!
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Sorry, what am I??
Anyone that feels the media would have treated this issue exactly the same if roles were reversed is smoking something. Every other case where a father has taken off with kids in this manner, thereis no deep consideration of his reasons, he is immediately called out as the criminal he is, while a plethora of sympathy heads the mums way. Fact.
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Please read my comment above about an Australian mother and UK father of Australian born children. Happens both ways and we read this story in a small column in the middle of the paper yesterday.
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I felt Tara Brown was at times too harsh with the mother and her family, and also at times patronising and smirking. I understand she had to ask the tough questions which she did but I felt she could have done it without the attitude.
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I didn’t see Tara as smirking at all. I think she asked some tough questions that needed to be asked. Why the heck would you take the girls on the run and create an even worse situation for four scared little girls? Shame on those women for putting their own interested before those
children.
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The girls were Italian citizens. They could well have travelled to Australia for a holiday on an Italian passport. They did not require an Australian passport for a temporary holiday. In my mind Laura deliberately set out to deceive the father and planned to permanently remove them from Italy, hence the reason for getting him to sign application for Aust. passport.
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You can’t be too “harsh” in an interview; that’s why it’s an interview – not a sodding lifestyle piece for a magazine. Tara didn’t give attitude, she just shut down the bullsh*t & made the Mother face facts, all the while querying her lack of factual information. The fact is, this mother is young & naive – & she NEEDS to be made accountable for her actions. Questioning her on her behaviour & decisions, asking “harsh” questions is what journalism is; why would you agree to an interview if you weren’t prepared to defend your case? I feel for this Mother as I think she is a sensitive, caring person who has made a dreadful mistake, & has now learnt this in the worst possible way because all of Australia now knows she has been very, very dishonest. She has made a mockery of people who are really, truly in bad situations that desperately need help. She may have been lonley & depressed which is a terrible mindset to be in, but she chose to be a Mother & live in a foreign country. I understand when you become a Mother, you make sacrifices – you can’t just decide to throw in the towel & get it all your own way & head home. She’s a parent, & she needs to take on board ALL of the responsiblity associated with her decisions.
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The mother is not ‘young and naive’. I understand that she is 31 or 32 years old. And an experienced mother of 4. Who has lived 15 years overseas. Should be a very worldly person. I thought the interview was fair. Especially considering that all we have ever heard until now is the mother’s side.
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I came away with so many feelings…
The mother did the wrong thing.
However the mother was an isolated unhappy woman who was clearly looking for guidance and she received very poor advice.
Her family are nuts.
The father, and his family of course came out of this squeeky clean.
I still have doubts. The mother said she had no friends. After 15 or so years living in Italy? Was she isolated and a victim of a controlling husband and family that wouldnt allow her to live her life and have friends outside their family unit? They appear to be honest decent people….but I still have questions about why she was so isolated from the outside world beyond her husbands family.
There are no winners in custody battles, least of all the kids. Especially these 4 children.
Its just so sad.
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No friends apart from the man she liked and kissed and met but did not have an affair with….
I’m guessing if she doesn’t have many friends left over there it’s probably got something to do with her behaviour!!
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Maybe Thomasso came out looking squeaky clean because he is? Bit strange how there is absolutely no evidence of the abuse that Laura claims because so frequent? No medical reports, no police reports, nothing.
The fact is, she didn’t want to live in Italy anymore and so she found a way to get out of Italy, at the expense of Thomasso and the relationship with his daughters, pretty darn selfish if you ask me.
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I would hate to assume that there was no domestic abuse, because what if there was?
Why is every other man accused of such things immediately evil and guilty, but because this woman comes from the wrong side of the tracks , has made a terrible decision and has a family who is clearly not normal, we think she’s made it all up????
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But what if there wasn’t??
His life and reputation have been ruined. Is that a fair price to pay “just in case” it might be true, despite all available evidence pointing to the fact that she is lying??
Do you honestly believe, that every women should be able to make a claim of domestic violence, and not produce one shred of evidence – and too bad for the men involved.
Dig up a copy of the SBS documentary ” Every families nightmare” and I guarantee you will change your tune.
The reason people don’t believe this woman has got nothing to do with what side of the tracks she comes from (I honestly wouldn’t even know) but because her story doesn’t add up.
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For my part I was shocked at how Tara Brown seemed to ‘go after’ the mother and her family – certainly in a way that she didn’t in the father’s interview. Fair enough, the tough questions needed to be asked, but of them both. As for me? I think there were mistakes made on both sides (and lies told on both sides – for me, he definitely strikes me as the controlling, manipulative type at best.), but that ultimately, it comes down to what the girls want – and they clearly want to be with the mother. I find it more appalling that the girl’s voices have been shut out so entirely.
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Maybe Tara went after them because they had big signs on their foreheads saying come and get me! Could have been all the lies too! What evidence is there that the father did ANYTHING wrong? Maybe except being a male? The only thing he did was trust his wife with their kids to do the honorable thing. What if the genders were reversed in this case? Would you have a different opinion if the “father” stole them from their “mother” in Italy and brought them to Australia?
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As someone dealing with custody issues, one thing stands out over all else. The Family Law Act is very specific. The custody arrangements must be in the best interests of the children. Where was that taken into account here? The case has been handled as though they’re stolen goods, not children.
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The children were stolen, and there is the offence of child stealing. The mother ignored international law and tried to manipulate the media to garner sympathy. I’m glad it didn’t work, and the kids were sent back to their father.
That woman should be prosecuted for what she did, in terms of breaking the law and the damage she inflicted on the children.
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This wasn’t a family court act deliberation of who should have custody. The mother had already agreed to shared custody with the father and the court signed off on it because that was presumably in the best interests of the children. The parents had been split for two years before the mother took off when them.
Assuming you get some kind of split custody arrangement and your ex-partner does a runner with the children – I’m fairly certain you would want them returned as well!
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@Simone It was my impression from the interview the children were in hiding for a large part of their time in Australia. That implies not going to school and hiding from the authorities. This would have been a large factor went the court had to decide what custody arrangement was in the best interests of those children.
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Fair enough the grandmothers etc were all a bit weird but I actually didnt really like Tara Browns approach towards the mother in the interview it appeared Tara Brown was on the fathers side only and lets not forget if it is meant to be all about the children the children did not want to go back to italy???????????????
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I think you missed the point, Tara was defending the children, she expressed her disgust at how the great grandmother put those children in the situation in the first place, not making it easy for them to leave when she knew they had to go back to Italy.
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We always say there are two sides to every story. Well for 2 years those girls didn’t see their father and for 2 years they only got one side of the story from their mother, grand mother and great grandmother. A side of the story that includes very serious allegations that are disputed by police and even the mothers own doctor.
Under those circumstances it is understandable that the girls were emotional, but that doesn’t mean that the wrong decision was made. Given that the mother took the children away from their father with a lie and there is zero evidence to back up any of the allegations against the father, I think the courts made the right decision to take them back to Italy.
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Yes, because two years of brainwashing from those three women wouldn’t make the children say they didn’t want to go back to their dad, would it? And I’m sure she wouldn’t have told them that if they went back she’d be in trouble with the law, she said it again last night. They obviously love her, she’s pulled a ‘boo hoo’ routine and they want to protect her.
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WHY didn’t the children want to go back to Italy? My guess would be because they’d been living with their Grandmother and Great Grandmother and had been brainwashed….
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Actually i disagree, it makes me want to vomit that 60 minutes even gave it coverage.
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60 Minutes on the whole makes me want to throw up! Such biased reporting and sensationalism. It’s really just a small step above A Current Affair.
Leigh Sales and the team at ABC are superior in every way!
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I was watching it too. I had the same thoughts. No winners, what a mess, tragic, and several people have made mistakes that led to this whole mess in my opinion.
However I did also think that the mother, grand mother and great-grand mother have some serious issues, though I can’t really point a finger on it. Just ‘strange’ how they behaved, what they said etc.
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I agree completely. Such a sad story for all involved and the long term emotional scars for those girls will no doubt have a lasting impact. I hope they are able to get the proper help they need to help them through this.
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I found the mother to be a puppet controlled by her mother.
From what I could gather there was NO documented abuse from the father which surely should have been investigated further by the Embassy, or passed on, to prevent something like this happening.
If these allegations are unfounded then shame on her and the other women, there are women out there in terrible situations and to lie about such things is a DISGRACE and should come with there own charges!!
I am a mother and I would risk jail if it meant I could be near my children, something I found hard to understand that the mother wasn’t prepared to do…….
Finally, with the evidence presented last night, the children are better off with their father and I hope they can work through the trauma caused by these despicable women!
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I agree. Watching the story on the news I didn’t know any sane mother that would manipulate their children through the media like this mother has. If it was me, I would try to live as close to them in Italy as I could. I always felt there was another side to the story.
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We got to witness first-hand Laura’s own mother manipulating her daughter as the interview was taking place.
All that is happening in the younger generation is history repeating itself with the four girls. The matriarchs of this family would be intersecting and getting in those girl’s ears as well. You can bet your share portfolio on this.
On the same topic of the nature of these women and the family ‘vibe’, Laura is 32. Her eldest daughter is 15, second eldest is 13, then 11 and 9.
She’d have been aged 17, 19, 21 and 23 at the time she had each daughter. I am really keen to know the background of her going overseas, meeting and marrying Tommaso and having four children so fast and so young.
Personally, I suspect she ‘got away’ from her matriarchs as a teen and married off young to escape it to start with. I’ve seen it happen before with a woman I knew. She gave her partner little thought and just went down that route mainly as a ‘fresh start’. She did love her children, naturally, but definitely made her decisions to suit her own needs before, during and afterwards. The children’s own best interests were not front and centre. Maybe that is what is happening here?
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Agreed Mia. I thought the story was well researched and delivered and that the whole situation was a complete mess. Those poor girls. Felt really sorry for the father, and for the mother too, no one wants their kids taken from them, even If they did create the situation. The mothers role models weren’t exactly great- that grandmother particularly was a piece of work!!
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My thought was, are they both really doing this for the welfare and the best interests of their kids, or is just a way for the parents to get back at each other. Why kids need to put in these situations astounds me. It will be the kids who will be affacted for the rest of their lives, not the parents.
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I have read the news stories, blogs, etc and seen the vitriol against the father. Last night’s 60 Minutes story left me in no doubt that the Mother is not credible & as for her mother & grandmother…..
I’m sick of reading that the girls want to be with their Mother & that should be the deciding factor. If you had lived with those 3 women poisoning your minds, no wonder they we
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Sorry, iPad cut me off…
If you had lived with those 3 women poisoning your minds, no wonder they were fearful of their father. I have done a lot of reading on PAS (Parental Alienation Syndrome) as my ex-BIL brainwashed my nephew against my SIL. It is so cruel! Every child has the right to know both their parents – the facts are that they lived their entire lives in Italy, and the mother removed them illegally, ie. kidnapped them! It is irrelevant that their mother is Australian – the matter had been decided before the Italian courts… FULL STOP!
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I think the mother, grandmother and great grandmother have done the wrong thing in this case. I really felt for the father, imagine just having your whole family taken away like that. I obviously feel sorry for the girls but they have clearly been brainwashed into thinking their father has been doing the wrong thing by them and if this has been told to them for two years of course they are reluctant to return. The mother was lying and very uncomfortable in the interview, she was literally squirming in her seat. The father however was calm and able to answer all the questions clearly. If I was that mother I would be in Italy with my girls. Even if that turned out to house arrest to make sure my girls were calm and happy would be all that mattered. She was hysterical when they got taken from her yet she remains in Australia, I think that is ridiculous.
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Completely agree. Tara Brown was amazing. It is certainly complicated. I have a friend and his ex wants to take his children overseas. He is so upset. The best thing for the kids is access to both parents. I wish all parents could work it out more peacefully. I feel so sad for those girls. No winners.
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I agree completely, Tara was excellent and I love that she did not put up with anyone’s c*#p and required straight answers.
Having worked in the law, I know how often the mother gets the sympathy (and custody of the children) so it was great to see both sides of the story. My heart goes outto those 4 girls for being dragged through one of the most horrific, painful events I’ve ever seen. My opinion (and my opinion alone) there was some serious brainwashing of those girls by their mother/grandmother/great grandmother to turn them against their father. I also found some of the discrepancies in the mum’s story rather odd – particularly with what the media had reported. In particular, I thought the dad had dropped the criminal charges in Italy so that the mum could return their to be with the girls and await the custody hearing there?!
Having said all that, kudos toTara for one of the best interviews in a long time and my thoughts to those 4 girls for a happy and loving upringing in whatever country (or parent) that may be.
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The mother & her family came across very badly, I thought. I was horrified by the phone message where the grandmother (or great granny, can’t remember) accused the father of watching his daughters undressing from outside of the house.
We might have seen a bit more emotion from the mother if she’d been able to move her face. Lots of lying going on last night, I thought, and not by the father.
The main thing is that there are four very damaged girls at the heart of all this. Those women should be ashamed of themselves.
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I am not surprised that Ms Garret tried to stop this interview being aired last night, how shameful.
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