The father of the pregnant rape victim said yesterday that the girl was "kidnapped" from her parents when taken into care by the Eastern Health Board without any permission from him.
He said that he was a bit upset as he was refused a visit to her on Sunday. He and his wife had wanted an unsupervised visit and wanted their own doctor to examine her. But the Health Board would not allow their doctor or the girl's mother to see her.
He said in an interview on Radio Ireland that he and his wife wanted to find out for themselves how their daughter was. The EHB had said she was suicidal. If that was the case, how could she make a decision not to see her parents? If she was suicidal, she was not capable of making up her own mind.
"In terms of our rights as parents, we don't seem to have any, " he said.
He said that their daughter was taken on an interim care order. "It was not a care order, we signed no forms, not even voluntary forms. My child was kidnapped from us. The EHB just came and snatched her and took her away in a car without permission from us," he said.
The father said that he and his wife were now legally represented. They were meeting their daughter today and their solicitor would be there, with the EHB solicitor. He hoped some of their other children would be there also. "All I want to find out is the mental state of my daughter and find out whether she wants the baby or not," he said.
He claimed that when her mother went to see her and asked her questions, the girl looked at the social worker first and she said nothing.
Asked why they had at first agreed to let the girl have an abortion, the father said that they were under duress and stress, and at the time were in a panic situation. They were totally in shock.
He said: "They are taking away a grandchild. If my daughter doesn't want to keep the baby then it can be adopted. We'll send my daughter to Jersey where there are people who will look after her. There are plenty of people in this country who can't have children, who'd like to adopt a baby. This is a life God gave. It is still a human being," he said.
His daughter was in the second stage of her pregnancy, and that was very dangerous for a little girl. What was worse was that it was dangerous for her to have an abortion at her age.