A couple claims that two attackers tried to kidnap their children during a “heartbreaking” incident at a hotel in Turkey.
Elaine and Phil were a week after the family vacation with their two children, ages 10 and 11, when the alleged assault took place in the early hours of May 16th.
The couple, from Dublin, had spent a beautiful day outside the hotel and had just arrived in the evening when their night fell into “pure and utter panic”, according to the Mirror.
Speaking to RTE’s Liveline, Elaine said the family had gone to their resort’s outdoor bar for an evening drink and met two English couples, one of whom had been socializing the night before. .
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Elaine said she was talking to both parents of the couple while her husband Phil was talking to both mothers.
However, things suddenly changed when “two men literally came out of nowhere.”
Elaine explained, “Big, tall men, over six feet tall. They put me in my face and shouted ‘Shit shit.’
“Did I say ‘sorry?’ and they repeated, “Shit, shut up. At that moment, I approached Phil because they were aggressive.”
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Elaine said her husband Phil approached the men to ask if there was a problem and at that point “everything changed.”
She said, “The two men attacked Phil. It was absolutely horrible, the kids were screaming.
“They basically grabbed Phil with one arm each and attacked him on the ground.
“The other two guys I’ve been talking to, Dean and Mike, were trying to help Phil. In the middle of that, I ran to pick up my kids.
“Another man came out of nowhere and was trying to pick up one of the other kids there. He threw a towel over his head and ran.
“Phil was shouting out loud to take the kids to the hotel. It was pure panic.”
The family described the incident as the most “heartbreaking” they had ever experienced. (Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Elaine said there was “so much panic” she doesn’t know how long they were out.
Her husband Phil managed to break free from the men and the family ran to the lobby, but had to go through a turnstile.
“One of the men grabbed Phil and tried to drag him through the turnstile. We went into the lobby and ran straight to the elevator,” he said.
Two men followed the family to the elevator and were “hitting Elaine and Phil’s p ** p” as they tried to drag them.
“Phil was grabbed on the poles on either side of the elevator. He was grabbed and wouldn’t let go,” Elaine said.
“One of my children, I don’t know how, kicked one of the men and ran out of the elevator and grabbed his brother.
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“They both ran to the bathroom next to the elevator. My son had my phone and they called the police.”
Elaine also managed to escape the elevator, but Phil was “sure they were behind her.”
He told Liveline, “This went on, it seemed like hours. Finally, the police came in.
“As soon as they came in, everyone’s behavior changed.” Phil was told to get out of the elevator “face down and hands and arms outstretched.”
“The police never spoke to me. Something pressed on the back of my head,” he said.
“These two men (who had attacked Phil) stayed there with six police officers, discussing what had happened, looked at the CCTV footage and then left without any arrest.
“I don’t know who these men were, but they knew the police.”
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Phil said that after a while he was able to escape from the police and hid in a hotel locker for more than an hour until he felt it was safe to leave.
He then ran to the family room where, fortunately, he found Elaine and her children.
Elaine said at the time she didn’t know why the men were targeting them, but now she believes it was to “create a distraction so they could try to kidnap one of the children.”
He added: “It was the most terrifying experience we have ever had.”
Dean, one of the parents Elaine and Phil were socializing with, is the father of the two-year-old girl who was allegedly nearly abducted.
Speaking to Liveline, Dean said that while the two men initially attacked Phil, he heard screams from behind and saw a third man “go to my two-year-old daughter who was sitting in a chair and put a towel and grabbed it “. up “.
“I managed to get away a bit and I heard the Turkish men screaming and they started running after me,” he said.
“I turned and ran and hid around the corner. Then I saw my eight-year-old son crying. So I grabbed him.”
Dean said two German girls at the scene managed to grab their daughter, Evie, away from the man and hid with her and Dean’s second son, five, in a bush.
He added: “I had never met them. They told me they saw him even though someone had tried to take my daughter away, so they took him alone and took my children and hid them in a shrub “.
Dean grabbed his kids and went back upstairs to the room as he thought it would be the safest place.
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Then he saw Elaine, Phil, and their two children fighting with two of the men in the elevator, and he approached to try to get them out.
Dean said, “The Turkish man got aggressive, hit me with his right hand. I backed away and ran back with my family to the lobby and we were there with the German girls who told us all about it. that was happening “.
After a while, Dean and his family tried to get back into the room and ran to the elevator, which was now empty.
He said: “When the doors were about to close, the Turkish men saw us and ran again and tried to get me out of the elevator while I was holding my two-year-old son.
“They tried to grab her again. I was holding mine and I stayed in that elevator.
“They managed to get down from us and then, when the doors closed, he put his hands back on and grabbed my daughter’s legs and tried to snatch her from my arms while the doors closed.
“We took it out, the doors closed and we went upstairs to the room.”
Phil said the incident was “like something Taken”. He said, “It was like an invented fantasy book or movie. It was reality.”
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When contacted for comment, the hotel in question denied that the incident took place.
Turkish police have also been contacted to comment on the alleged incident.
A Garda spokesman said: “Gardaí received a report in connection with an assault that took place outside the jurisdiction on May 15, 2022.
“This matter has now been sent to the Interpol section of An Garda Síochána for subsequent transmission to the competent authorities.”