Mother pleads for return of eight-year-old son abducted by father three weeks ago
The mother of an eight-year-old boy who is missing after being abducted by his father 24 days ago has pleaded for him to be returned home.
Karol Marmolejo last saw her son Angelo Jurado-Marmolejo (pictured) before he went to football practice in Bristol on the morning of March 2.
At 11.30am, Angelo’s father Rafael Jurado-Cabello, 43, collected him from the club and handed over travel documents as ordered by a family court.
Mr Jurado-Cabello, a Spanish national, was supposed to return Angelo to his mother’s home in the Whitehall area of Bristol at 5.30pm.
He failed to do so and neither Mr Jurado-Cabello or Angelo have been seen or heard from since.
Speaking after a hearing at Bristol Civil and Family Justice Centre, Ms Marmolejo wept as she pleaded with her former partner to return their son.
“We miss Angelo, he is definitely our life. There is not anything here without him. Everything is around Angelo,” she said.
“I don’t know what’s happened with him. Please, please, give us the most information you can give us for us to bring Angelo back.
“It’s been three weeks and we don’t know anything about him.
“It is believed that he has moved from Bristol but we don’t know anything else.”
In a direct appeal to Angelo’s father, she said: “Please bring him back.
“We really need him here, it is where he lives, it is where he belongs.”
She described how her son had been “very happy” ahead of football practice on March 2.
Angelo had been playing with his toys and speaking to his mother and elder brother David Marmolejo, 22.
“(I told him) Remember Angelo, you’re coming back later – I will be waiting for you,” she said.
“He gave me a kiss and he’s gone. Now he’s not here.”
Ms Marmolejo said Angelo had been looking forward to celebrating his ninth birthday on April 7.
They were planning a party with friends at AirHop, a trampoline park in Bristol.
“He must be thinking about that, he was excited about his birthday,” she said.
The court heard that Angelo and his parents, who are both Spanish nationals, moved to Bristol from Spain in 2012.
Friends said Angelo, who has a passion for football, is bilingual but speaks with a Bristol accent.
Family court proceedings began after Mr Jurado-Cabello kept Angelo in Spain following a school half-term holiday in February 2017.
He was returned home the following month and in August that year, a family court found Mr Jurado-Cabello was “obsessed with negative feelings” towards Ms Marmolejo.
Proceedings concluded in February this year, when the court ordered that Angelo should continue to live with his mother and spend time with his father.
To reduce the risk of Mr Jurado-Cabello abducting Angelo a second time, he was required to surrender his passport and Spanish identity card at the beginning of each visit.
It is believed that Mr Jurado-Cabello provided fake documents when he collected Angelo from football on March 2 – the first visit that took place following the conclusion of family court proceedings.
He has been ordered to return Angelo to his mother but has not done so and is suspected to have left the country.
Judge Nicholas Marston told the public hearing on Tuesday: “This is a very serious matter.
“The oxygen of publicity is an advantage, not a disadvantage in this case.
“I want to stress that although the parents are not from this country, Angelo is a little Bristolian boy.”
Judge Marston said Mr Jurado-Cabello had lost two family cases where he had tried to persuade the court that Angelo should live with him.
The judge said his failure to return Angelo to his mother was “clear contempt of court” and in breach of a number of orders.
He described the effect of the boy’s disappearance on Ms Marmolejo as “utterly devastating” and said it would be “traumatic” for Angelo.
“Any help that anyone can give in tracing where this little boy is is therefore very beneficial to the court,” the judge said.
“It is of benefit to the mother but most of all, it is of benefit to Angelo.”
Mr Jurado-Cabello’s family are from Cordoba in Spain, while his girlfriend has links to Mexico.
He is described as white, between 5ft 6in and 5ft 7in, and with black hair.
Angelo was last seen wearing a zip-up jacket, red trainers and carrying a blue rucksack.
Detective Inspector Matt Lloyd, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “We are desperate to get him back to Bristol where he belongs.
“We are relentless in trying to track him down.”
Anyone who sees father or son is asked to call 999 giving the reference 5219046310.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Family Handout / PA Wire.
