Missing teenager's aunt in plea for EU-wide warning system
The aunt of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick has called for an EU-wide early-warning system to alert authorities about missing children.
The 15-year-old, who was living in Spain with her mother, vanished in the Costa del Sol area on January 1 after she failed to return home from a New Year’s Eve party in a friend’s house.
Aunt Christine Kenny today handed over a petition containing 20,000 signatures to the EU Commission office in Dublin urging a US-style Amber Alert System for missing children.
Ms Kenny, who is a sister of Amy’s biological father Christopher, called on the Irish Government to take a lead on the issue to improve co-operation between police forces in missing persons cases in member states.
Ms Kenny said today: “This situation could happen to any family out there and with the current loopholes in the system, these families would lose vital time in searching for their loved ones.
“Police authorities involved in Amy’s search didn’t have up-to -date information on Amy and this hampered their search efforts in the early days.”
Amy had been living in Spain with her mother Audrey, brother Dean (aged 17) and her stepfather Dave Mahon.
The family met the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in March when he reiterated the Government’s offer to provide whatever assistance it could.
Mr Ahern later asked the Irish Embassy in Madrid to convene a meeting between the family, Irish officials and the Spanish police.
Several Irish MEPs have supported Ms Kenny in her campaign including Proinsias de Rossa, Gay Mitchell and Mary Lou McDonald.
Ms McDonald said EU commitments to implement a common hotline telephone number and an integrated alert system for missing persons cases has not been fulfilled.
She urged president of the European Council, French president Nicolas Sarkozy to prioritise the issue during his term.
“The implementation of a European wide Amber Alert System, similar to the service that is operated in the US, is essential if member states are to effectively tackle the abduction of children in Europe,” she said.
