Telford woman sentenced to two years for kidnap of baby

Kelly Mahon, aged 41 of John Broad Avenue in Arleston, Telford appeared before Shrewsbury Crown Court after pleading guilty to one count of kidnap at an earlier hearing on Tuesday 29 March.

The sentencing follows an investigation into a crime that shocked the Telford community and saw West Mercia Police, local residents and the media work together to appeal for help in finding the baby boy safe and well.

The crime happened at around 2.30pm on Wednesday 24 February when Mahon knocked on the front door of a family's home on Manor Road in Arleston, Telford. When the baby's mother answered the door, Mahon told her that her husband and their other children had been involved in a car crash a few streets away. Mahon offered to look after the, then, nine-week-old baby boy while his mum rushed to the aid of her family.

When the little boy's mother returned to the address after finding there had been no collision and her family were safely on their way home, she found both Mahon and the infant were gone.

Police were alerted to the incident at approximately 3pm and a wide scale hunt for the child and the woman was launched. A vast amount of police resources were dedicated to the search.

Thanks to information given by the public following local, national and online appeals, police officers found the child, fast asleep and uninjured, at Mahon's home address at approximately 6:10pm the same day.

Officers took the sleeping baby to hospital to be checked over by staff before being reunited with his family a short while later.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Neil Jamieson of the West Mercia Major Investigation Unit said: "First and foremost we would like to commend the family of the little baby boy for their strength and bravery throughout this entire ordeal.

"None of us can even begin to imagine how his parent's must have been feeling for those few hours and the agony they must have gone through. We are so pleased that today we have seen justice done for them.

"Crimes of this nature are, thankfully, incredibly rare but West Mercia Police does have robust systems in place to respond, should the worst happen and a dynamic investigation was immediately launched after we received the report of the child's disappearance. As a result of a swift response by officers acting on lines of enquiry from the public we were thankfully able to find the baby and get him back in the safe arms of his mum and dad as soon as possible.

The parents of the baby said: "While he was missing, I cannot explain in words how we felt. The thought that our practically newborn son was alone, frightened and in a strange place with someone he did not know is indescribable. We both felt sick. It was impossible to think straight. We just wanted to be out there looking for him ourselves.

"We cannot put into words how grateful we are to West Mercia Police for bringing our baby back to us. We are forever thankful for their hard work. We would also like to thank everyone who called the police to share information on who took our baby. This was incredibly brave and you helped bring him home safely to us. Thank you to everyone who shared the appeal, both the public and the media. Thank you to everyone for their kind thoughts and comments."