Virginia Passes My Bill on International Child Abduction (HB2361)

One of the most important activities in my life is in advocating and dealing with international child abduction.

In 2003, my youngest daughter Emily Rose was abducted from the UK and brought by her mother to the United States.  This is one reason why I’ve ended up in America and have so many ties to the country I fell in love with as a kid growing up in the Seventies (my long suffering, American wife is the other).

I found my little girl, though I never got her back and she has been retained in the US, nevertheless I advocate and work on behalf of left-behind parents such as Roy Koyama who has his little girl in Costa Rica. At times, it has been heart-rending and depressing, but it has never been boring and there are times when there is an euphoric high, such as when Sean Goldman was returned from Brazil on Christmas Eve, 2009.

Aside from working on specific cases, I also work with legislators and most recently drafted the Virginia Bill on International Child Abduction, which provides for the assets of child abductors to be seized and forfeited.  This includes the assets of abductors who kidnap children from overseas to the Commonwealth rather than just from it – something which I believe is unique in the US.

You can learn more at my little girl’s blog – http://emilyrosehindle.blogspot.com

To become a client of mine means you are going to have your conscience pricked repeatedly – I am a firm believer in “paying it forward” and I’m certainly not backwards in coming forwards with everyone I meet on this exceptionally serious issue.