A seven-year-old girl, who was allegedly snatched and molested by a stranger during a Christmas shopping trip with her mother, has been left so traumatised by the incident that she remains unable to speak to the police five days on.
According to the Sun, the little girl was abducted from a Kmart outlet in Brisbane, Australia and taken to the bushes where she was allegedly molested. The stranger who snatched the child drove the child back to the Kmart and left her there after the incident.
The police have since arrested a suspect after reviewing CCTV footage. The accused has since appeared in court, where he was charged with taking a child for immoral purposes, deprivation of liberty and indecent treatment of a child under 12.
The suspect cannot be named due to a court-mandated suppression order.
Earlier, the distraught mother of the child alleged that the stranger had been staring at her daughter while they were shopping. She wrote on social media:
“I never normally leave my daughter so I feel sick thinking about this. There was a guy standing there leaning on the shelf…his eyes were just fixed on my daughter and he was only an arm’s length away from her.
“I called for her and then he was startled, he looked at me and walked away. Straight away, I 100 per cent had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right… now that I know what happened I just feel sick.
“I just feel sick. I had a gut instinct that guy was really creepy. I just had the worst feeling.”