Dad’s dilemma over runaway daughter

A 47-YEAR-OLD Nicosia father yesterday accused an 18-year-old youth of abducting his 14-year-old daughter whom the young man was dating.
The girl’s father said he had not forcibly tried to remove his underage daughter from her boyfriend’s home because “under no circumstances” did he want to be found guilty of anything.
Although yesterday’s trial focused on a ten-day period in April 2008, the father of two said his daughter had stayed with Panayiotis Xenofondos for much longer. He said he knew this because his daughter had exchanged emails with her mother from a telephone line traced back to Xenofondos’ Latsia home.
The father also said there were at least four more cases pending against the young man, now aged 20, for the same charge, and produced a slip of paper calling him to appear in court on January 21 as a witness in another such instance.
The 47-year-old told the court he and his daughter had a difficult relationship and she often left home for several days at a time, refusing to say where she had been. The father did not offer an explanation for why his daughter used to disappear. He only said that he used to contact the police and Social Welfare Services regarding her behaviour which he said was “problematic”.
In March 2008 the 47-year-old said she disappeared and failed to come home until April 15 when she was found at Xenofondos’ house by police.
“She refused to co-operate with police and wouldn’t say where she was. When we came home it was around 12.30am. When I woke up at 7.15am and went to her room to check on her I found she was gone and had put soft toys under her bedcovers to make it look like she was sleeping there,” he said.
“After repeated calls she finally picked up the phone at 11am and said she was at the shops. She then hung up on me. I kept trying to ring her and she only answered me a few times,” he said.
The 47-year-old said his daughter did not come home for 10 days and on April 26 he received an anonymous phone call tipping him off that his daughter was staying with Xenofondos. Although police had been to the teen’s house to investigate more than once they had never found her there, the father admitted.
This was because Xenofondos’ house was in a dead end and any car driving up the street was immediately visible allowing his daughter to sneak off out the back, he added.
Throughout the court proceeding Xenofondos, who was a slight youth with short spiky hair, sat in the dock smirking at his ex-girlfriend’s father, while the latter didn’t even dignify a glance in the young man’s direction.
During the early hours of April 27 the father said he parked near Xenofondos’ home and waited for them to come home which he says they did at 4am. He said he saw both of them clearly because the front porch light was on. Xenofondos’ denies the accusation and has claimed his girlfriend was not staying with him during the ten day period in question, although he did allegedly tell her father that on April 16 she had rung him during the early hours and asked him to come and collect her.

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