"THE Irish people did something from their hearts to help. The Germans, you know, like to remain in their own corners. They didn't help, but the Irish did, and I'm here because of them."
Sitting in the lobby of a hotel near Cork with a young German woman and her son, it was not difficult to believe her description of having been through hell and back. It was a classic abduction case. A very nasty business, it left a mother who loved her son destitute, desperate, and for a while, without hope. And it was a near thing. Mother and son stood a fair chance of never being united again - only her grit made the difference. Hers, and the people who befriended her in Cork, Dublin, and the EU, notably Ms Mary Banotti, MEP.
The boy and his mother were together again but it was a very nervous togetherness. Quite willing to talk to The Irish Times about an experience that was at times almost surreal, Ms Christine Wagner (27), had one overriding interest - to ensure we did not publish her address in Cork or the name of the school where her son Tom (8) is now a pupil.
At regular intervals during our conversation, Ms Wagner excused herself and went to check on Tom. Other young people were there, as were responsible adults, but she "had to check. She was worried that her former boyfriend - Tom's father - Mr Holger Radke might turn up suddenly and do what he had done before - snatch her son.
This was not a passing obsession. She is convinced that should he ever get his hands on the child again he will disappear for good.
For 17 months of her life he did disappear and it took a titanic struggle against the odds to get him back. It was a traumatic time in Ms Wagner's life, demanding rare mental reserves. Fighting the case has left her drained on a number of fronts.
First, she discovered that her sister Daria (29), had been secretly seeing her partner, and that she had actively connived at Tom's disappearance. Then, with no one in authority in Germany willing to help, she learned that other members of her family were aware of what was going on but had remained silent. Distraught, she also learned that her ex boyfriend and his new partner - her sister - had told the authorities in Germany she was unstable, a drug abuser, a thief and someone who would physically abuse children.
But she has come through, and slowly her life with her son and a new partner is coming together again. Bridges have still to be built, though, and as Ms Wagner sees it, there is the ever present danger of the boy's father turning up on her doorstep or at his school, to spirit him away for a second time.
She intends to speak to the Garda in Cork about her fears, and she has warned the authorities in Tom's school that Mr Radke might come back for him. Meanwhile, she is enjoying leisure pursuits with the boy, in an effort to rebuild their damaged relationship however, she is so conscious of the security position that she does not want even the nature of the activity in which they engage to be disclosed.
Ms Wagner is quiet spoken. Her son is a normal eight year old with a boyish interest in the things around him.
Meeting him for the second time since his arrival back in Cork last February, it is difficult to believe that he, too, had his share of trauma, and that despite his youth, he would have to come to terms with a hectic episode in his life.
For a start, his mother says the boy still loves his father, and that even though he did what he did, the boy's father loves him. Tom is still somewhat confused about all of this, Ms Wagner says, and that is part of the relationship building that she must do with him.
"He can be a little devil, like all boys", she adds.
In the VIP lounge of Cork Airport on the afternoon of his return, Ms Banotti, who was instrumental in his safe return asked for a sensitive approach from the media. She said no one could know what had been said to the boy during the 17 months he was absent from his mother. In abduction cases, she added, it was quite common for a father to tell the abducted child that his mother had abandoned it and no longer cared. That, and a lot worse could be said. This was a form of child abuse too, and as bad in its own way as other types of abuse, she added.
The Christine Wagner saga began in 1986 when she met Mr Radke in Berlin. The relationship was not a stable one. Her boyfriend was sometimes physically abusive; he was out of work and didn't appear to want to find a job; he would tolerate no criticism. Frequently, he would pretend to be working at his trade - upholstering - when in fact, as she now knows, he was leaving their apartment to go to her sister's one across the city.
Ms Wagner said she would often telephone her sister to complain that Mr Radke never seemed to be at home. Often, her sister would reply "maybe he doesn't love you any more". Before she found out what was really going on, she believed she and her sister were very close. Then a friend who had become aware of the situation said she could no longer hide the truth and told her what was happening.
By November 1990 the couple had split up. There was a confrontation with her sister, Ms Wagner says, but she came to accept the situation because there was nothing she could do about it.
Having saved some money, Ms Wagner came to Ireland in August 1993 for a holiday. She decided that she wanted to live here permanently and moved over at the end of that year. Her young son was left with her parents in Berlin while she set about establishing a home and finding a job in Dublin. By then, she had met Mr Reimer Faust, her new partner. They eventually moved to Cork, and the following February Tom joined them. An agreement had already been reached in Berlin, giving Mr Radke regular access to the child.
By 1995, Ms Wagner had become a student at the Dublin Institute of Technology and her sister had suggested that Tom should be allowed join Mr Radke and her in Berlin for a holiday. Not knowing that an abduction plan was afoot, Christine Wagner agreed. The boy said he would write every day to let her know how the holiday was going.
He left for Berlin on July 8th, 1995, but four weeks later, she still hadn't heard from him. "I was really worried. They had given me a telephone number but it didn't answer. Actually, they had an ex directory number. I got in touch with a friend in Berlin and it was she who told me that they were planning to keep Tom." She then went to the German embassy in Dublin, seeking help, but officials there could offer little support.
A week later, she went to the Templehof district of Berlin, where her sister lives, to ask where Tom was. She was told the boy and his father were not there but that they would be swimming together at a nearby pool the following day. In fact, he had fled with Tom to Western Samoa. Her sister knew this, she says, as did her mother, who had promised Dana that she would keep her secret.
Ms Wagner went to the police, searched Berlin for the boy without success, and finally went to the courts where she was given an order granting her custody. She went with a bailiff to her sister's apartment on foot of the order but found only her son's clothes.
There was more police contact during which she learned that her sister and Mr Radke had warned the German authorities she was not to be trusted as a mother, that she was an unsafe, unstable stories were conflicting.
People did not know whom to believe. She got the Berlin youth agencies involved and waited outside her sister's apartment for weeks, hoping to catch a glimpse of her son. "I was running out of money, I had no one to turn to. I was in a desperate position, I couldn't even trust my own family," she said.
It was not until the following: March that her mother told her the whole story. Then, there was a stroke of luck. A painter friend in Berlin introduced her to someone in government circles and slowly the wheels began to turn.
She was advised to go to Samoa, and if necessary, snatch the boy back. Friends in Ireland suggested that Ms Banotti, who had been involved at EU level in previous abduction cases, might be able to help. That set in train a series of events bringing the power of the EU to bear on the case.
It was made known to the Samoan authorities that Ms Wagner was the legal custodian of the boy. Ms Banotti suggested in the EU Parliament that if the Samoan authorities did not comply with the German court order, then the EU should not include Samoa in its overseas aid programme.
Ms Wagner travelled to Western Samoa on December 27th of last year. By then, she had not seen her son for almost 17 months.
Friends in Cork paid her fare.
For two weeks, she failed to meet the boy, but on the third week of her visit, she was allowed access in the presence of officials.
She was shocked when she saw how pale and thin he had become. And even more shocked when she found out that while she was waiting to meet her son, Mr Radke had gone to a local court and obtained his own order for custody. She hadn't been told that the application was being made. Finally, her own lawyer in Samoa arranged for a second hearing, and the original order was overturned.
But matters didn't end there. Outside the court, Mr Radke grabbed the boy and attempted to run away with him. As she tried to hold on to Tom, her sister, who was also there, attacked her. There was a huge scene on the street.
"Tom was screaming at the top of his voice. My sister was biting and kicking and trying to choke me. It was awful. I kept holding Tom, that's all I cared about. In the middle of the fight, he lost the sandals he was wearing. The police came - everyone was looking at what was going on. The lawyer drove us back to the hotel.
"The next flight out of Western Samoa wasn't until the following day so I had to remain in the hotel that night with the doors locked. It was a terrible time. I talked to Tom all night long, and eventually, he calmed down a bit. The next day, we flew to American Samoa, and after three days of travelling, we got back to Cork. It wouldn't have happened without Mary Banotti and my Irish friends," Ms Wagner said.