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A blind mother fearing she would lose custody of her five-year-old daughter is believed to have fled to Europe with the child.
The Hamilton woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been fighting her own mother and stepfather for full custody of her daughter since last May. It is suspected she may have fled the country with her daughter to live in France or Spain where her father had property, the Waikato Times reported today.
Her daughter's father and former partner said he did not know she was leaving, but he was "100 per cent" behind what she did.
The woman, in her late 20s, went blind after she had a benign tumour removed when her daughter was two.
While she recuperated her mother looked after the child. It was not until almost two years after surgery she got sole custody back.
The newspaper understood custody was now officially shared.
Last November the mother sent a plea to Disabilities Minister Ruth Dyson.
"Ms Dyson, I do not know what to do or where to turn," she wrote.
"I pray that you, the disabilities minister of New Zealand, can do something to help our dire situation. I am about to lose my daughter. The only crime I committed was going blind."
Hamilton police had not received reports that a child was missing.
- NZPA
