The mother of the young girl abducted near Moate, Co Westmeath, earlier this week said last night that she hoped the man would be caught before he did something to another child.
Ms Kathleen Maughan described as a "monster" the man who snatched her daughter, Mary (8), as she walked home from school on Tuesday. The child's disappearance for five hours was "worse than a death in the family", she said.
It emerged yesterday that Mary had missed the school bus and decided to walk the mile to her home. Ms Maughan, who had been away from the house, arrived back to find her partner, Mr Paul Joyce, and a neighbour standing outside. Local garda∅ were already on the scene, interviewing the neighbour, who had witnessed the abduction.
The family were distraught. "It was worse than a member of the family dying, because I didn't know where my child was and I didn't know what this man was doing to her."
Ms Maughan said she was considering a request to appear on tomorrow's Late Late Show. She was very nervous in case she "made a mess of it", but she wanted to send a message to other parents that they should keep their children within "eye contact" at all times.
The support the family had received from the local community was wonderful, Ms Maughan said. On what happened during the abduction, Ms Maughan said she believed Mary was still "very confused".
Mr Kevin Farrell, the reporter from the Star newspaper who found the child on the roadway near her home after she escaped from her abductor, said he was glad she had come to no harm. Mary appeared at the passenger door of his car at around 8.45 p.m. as he stopped at a house to speak to a neighbour of the family. Mary's cousin, Willy Doran (14), was a passenger in the car at the time.
"It's my opinion that she recognised the young guy, because she wouldn't have come near me. It was like she had dropped out of the sky. . .He just dragged her into the car and there were hugs and kisses. She was trembling and shaking and I just held her hand. She said that the man went to go to the toilet and she ran away."
Mr Farrell immediately drove to a Garda checkpoint a short distance away and handed Mary to two garda∅. He then returned to her parents' house at Knockdomney to break the news. The earlier state of "pandemonium" in the house gave way to "tears of joy", he said.
A Garda spokeswoman said yesterday that the investigation into the abduction was ongoing. No arrests have been made.
Mary Maughan spoke to the media and was again interviewed by garda∅ yesterday to establish what happened during her disappearance. Speaking on RT╔'s Five Seven Live programme, she said that the man who abducted her just a short distance from her home told her to "get in and stop screaming". He had central locking on his car, she said. "He just went all around wiggly roads. He was in a rush because he didn't know what he was doing."
She said she had seen the man before in a shop but he "had a different car". The child described the man's clothing and a "scar". He had brown eyes, a blue shirt and jeans and black shoes.