Marilyn Stowe Blog

Yorkshire Mum pleads for information the whereabouts of her missing daughter

A Yorkshire mother has urged the family of her estranged husband to reveal the whereabouts of their missing daughter.

Naomi Button, 39, has not seen her daughter Elsa since December 2011, when she was abducted by her father Tamer Salama during a  visit to his family in Egypt.

Ms Button, from Bramley in Leeds, told the BBC:

“To snatch Elsa away from me was the cruellest thing anyone could do… I appeal from the bottom of my heart to Tamer’s family to please give her back to me. All they need to do is to make one phone call to the British Embassy. The anguish I have suffered over the last 13 months has been almost unbearable at times.”

She told Sky News:

“The worst times are when I wake up in the middle of the night. I worry that she’s crying for me. I wonder that she thinks I just left her. I don’t know what she’s been told. I don’t know if she thinks I don’t want her and I just left her…in Egypt.”

She added: “Please just let [Elsa] come home to her mummy. She found it very difficult being away from me for any length of time. I know that she wants to be back home with mummy and I hope that they do the right thing.”

Last week Salama, 35, received a second jail sentence after refusing to reveal Elsa’s whereabouts. Sentencing him to 12 months for contempt of court, Mr Justice Cobb urged Salama to “wake up” and recognise that the situation was not in his daughter’s interests.

“When Mr Salama first deprived Elsa of the love of her mother and arranged for her to be in the care of his own family, that was a gross act which undoubtedly justified … the most serious punishment available to the court.”

He added: “I am satisfied that her father has it in his power to achieve the restoration of her relationship [with her mother].”

The couple were married in Egypt in 2005 and Elsa was born in the country before the family moved to England in 2007. They separated in 2009 and Elsa remained with her mother.

The girl, who will be six next month, was abducted during a visit to Sharm El Sheikh. Ms Button had arranged the trip so that the girl could see her father’s family.

Salama has admitted that his mother took Elsa from Sharm El Sheikh to Cairo but has given no further information on the girl’s whereabouts and Ms Button has no proof that she is alive and well, the BBC reports.

A similar case involving the abduction of a child by her father was resolved last year when a public plea led one of the girl’s uncles to reveal her whereabouts in Pakistan.

Photo of Leeds city centre from Bramley by Gunnar Larsson via Wikipedia under a Creative Commons licence