On March 05, 2007 5 year-old Liam Gabriele McCarty, a United States citizen, was kidnapped from his home in Manhattan and taken to Rome, Italy where he has been languishing in an Italian orphanage.

This appalling abduction was aided and facilitated by the Italian consulate in direct violation of explicit court orders that Liam not be removed from the United States. The kidnapper whom the consulate assisted is Manuela Antonelli, a psychologically disturbed international fugitive currently sought by Interpol, and on the FBI's Most Wanted list.

She is also Liam's mother.

For nearly three years Liam's father and sole legal and physical guardian, Michael McCarty, has been embroiled in an emotionally and financially devastating international battle to try and protect his son, and to see him safely returned to his proper home. In the course of this grueling battle the Italian judicial and Social Services systems have through repeated negligence, error and omission, blatantly contributed to what is by now a severe human rights violation against 8 year-old United States Citizen Liam Gabriele McCarty. Above all this system has ignored Liam's fundamental right to a competent and loving parent, inexplicably choosing to leave Liam as a ward of the state; a prisoner and forgotten victim of an ineffective system.

Tragically Liam was recently re-abducted by his mother. On November 18, 2009 Liam disappeared from the Juvenile Courthouse in Rome and is now missing.

Prior to kidnapping their son Ms. Antonelli had engaged in a deplorable campaign of malicious litigation against Liam's father culminating in the “nuclear bomb” of custody disputes: false allegations of abuse. These horrific claims were thoroughly investigated by the NYPD, the New York District Attorney's office, Children's Services, and multiple mental health experts appointed by New York Family Court. A full forensic evaluation was completed on Liam and both parents, and the mother's accusations were irrefutably determined to be “unfounded,” “baseless” and “false.” Ms. Antonelli was diagnosed to be suffering from severe personality disorders, and deemed an unfit parent. The Court found Mr. McCarty to be a capable, loving and competent father, awarding him sole legal and physical custody of Liam, and making a judicial finding of “Parental Alienation” against the mother. 

Unfortunately Ms. Antonelli kidnapped Liam before the U.S. custody orders could be implemented. Once in Italy she continued her systematic campaign of brainwashing and alienating Liam from his father. Italian authorities inexplicably chose to ignore the U.S. warrants, orders and findings, allowing Liam to be subjected to yet another arduous legal battle and the multiple evaluations, examinations and interrogations that came with it. Liam was denied any contact with his father for nearly two years. The Italian courts finally determined of their own volition, yet again, that Ms. Antonelli's incessant accusations were unfounded and that she was a danger to Liam. Emergency orders were issued removing Liam from his mother and placing him in an orphanage, assigning his legal custody and care into the bureaucratic nightmare of the Italian Social Services system.

The most glaring question in this outrageous story is why didn't the Italian authorities simply return Liam to his father when there was a legitimate order of custody already in place? How can one system fail a child so many times? After nearly 3 years of extreme psychological abuse, a traumatizing international abduction, placement in an orphanage, over 20 mental health professionals and over 30 judges offering varying opinions on Liam's “best interests” and now a tragic re-abduction, Liam is  sadly, a very angry and confused 8 year-old boy, currently in grave danger and desperately in need of adequate care and a stable, loving home and family. This is exactly what awaits him at his home in New York, and precisely what he has been denied for far too long.
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