What happened to the four girls who were dragged kicking and screaming from their mother and sent back to ‘monster’ Italian father in Australia’s largest international abduction case?
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Four sisters were at centre of an international custody dispute
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The girls were sent back to live with their father in Italy in 2012
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They were dragged kicking and screaming from their Sunshine Coast home
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The distressing scenes shown on TV caused hysteria and concern
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60 Minutes has exclusively interviewed the girls at their home near Florence
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Their mother has not visited them in Italy until now (2015)
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This edition of 60 Minutes will screen nationally on Channel 9 at 8.30pm this Sunday, April 12
They were the heartbreaking scenes of a family being torn apart: four young sisters being dragged kicking and screaming from their mother’s home in the middle of the night.
The story was that the girls had been taken from their abusive father back in Italy to hide out in Australia and now they were being sent back to the ‘monster’ against their will.
The scenes of the girl’s forced return caused widespread outcry, particularly as the girls’ mother portrayed the cruelty of the Dad, and the girls – then aged nine to 14 years old – frightened and distraught.
The four Vincenti sisters, including the two older girls Emily and Claire, had a ‘monster’ of a father who abused them according to their mother, or so the story went, after the girls were removed from their home in dramatic circumstances and returned to Italy
Laura Garrett (pictured) has consistently maintained that she was removing her daughters from Italy back to Australia for their own safety
That was in 2012 and it seemed unbelievable to many Australians who watched the scenes play out that the girls were legally being returned to their Italian father as approved under Italian law.
What had been lost in the drama was the fact that the four sisters had earlier been taken by their mother from Italy without the knowledge or permission of that father, Tomaso Vincenti, and that the girls had been born in Italy and spent the greater part of their young lives there.
Now 60 Minutes has returned to the village near Florence where the girls have been living with their Italian Dad and interviewed the two elder girls, Emily and Claire Vincenti and talked to them about their lives and the dramatic circumstances in which they were apparently wrenched from their mother, Laura Garrett.
Emily and Claire Vincenti (pictured) are now aged 16 and 17 and are living in Italy with their father
Emily and Claire talked about their parents and were filmed going out with their Italian boyfriends in Florence
The four Vinceni girls miss Australia and their mother, but appear happy and calm in contrast to the dramatic and hysterical scenes in which they were removed from Australian in late 2012
The girls are living positive and fruitful lives, attending school six days a week, talking about what they will study at university and going out with their Italian boyfriends in Florence, according to the programme.
The dramatic turn in the lives of the Vincenti girls began in 2010, when they left Italy ostensibly just for month’s holiday back in Australia, with their mother’s family on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
Laura Garrett and Tomaso Vincenti had met when she was a schoolgirl and had gone to Italy as an exchange student. Her host family was Tomaso’s parents and Laura and Tomaso fell in love.
Laura became pregnant and the pair married. Ms Garrett gave birth to four healthy girls, but in 2007 when the youngest was only around four years old she split from Tomaso.
Under Italian law, both parents were granted equal custody. In 2010, Laura told Tomaso she wanted to take the girls back to Australia for a vacation.
Ms Garrett told the Australian embassy in Italian entirely different story, that she was fleeing an abusive husband and father and she needed their assistance.
Once back in Australia, Ms Garrett and her daughters settled down to life in Queensland for two years, until the dramatic scenes which saw them returned to Italy.
Now aged twelve to 17, the young women behave in complete contrast to the screaming, hysterical girls captured on camera in 2012.
Just a day after being taken to their father’s villa on the outskirts of Florence, the two older girls were filmed running to the front gates when they saw media camped outside and pleaded for reporters to help them return to Australia.
The eldest girl was taken back inside by her father, while her sister clung to the gate as her grandmother urged her to return inside. She held onto the gate for an hour, during which local police and social workers arrived.
The girls had not seen their mother since they left Australia, but after 60 Minutes went to Italy to film the story, Laura Garrett has subsequently turned up for a three-day visit.
Ms Garrett has previously said in the years since her daughter’s return to Italy that the girls were unhappy.
‘They don’t seem to be settling,’ she said in 2013. ‘I keep getting constant requests from them to come home.’