Living in fear of child snatcher

Photo: Darren Robinson

Zorita Stanca and daughter Contessa.

A MOTHER whose baby daughter was snatched from her living room while she was upstairs admits she is still scared for their safety.

Zorita Stanca (24), of Hathershaw, was getting her two children ready to visit her mum when she went upstairs to get a handbag. The children were downstairs in their Meldrum Street home and Zorita’s now sister-in-law was in the kitchen when 18-month-old Contessa was taken by Michael Keeton.

Police later arrested 27-year-old Keeton and he later pleaded guilty to abducting a child. He received a 12-month community order at Manchester Crown Court yesterday.

The judge denied a prison sentence because Keeton has been in jail since October 2014, and had already effectively served a prison sentence.

Zorita, now a mother of three told the Chronicle: “He might come again. I don’t want him near my house, or to touch me or my children. I am scared.”

She explained how, on the day of the abduction in September 2014, she frantically searched her home before rushing outside and being told by a nine-year old girl that she had seen a man taking a child next door.

Distraught Zorita stormed round and could see a man trying to stop the toddler screaming. She tried to open the front door and yelled at him, at which he ran out of the back door. The mother ran round and during the struggle wrestled Contessa away from him.

Zorita explained she barely knew Keeton: “I started banging on the door, trying to break it down and break the windows to get her back. He ran round the back and I chased him. He told me she was outside and he brought her in. I said don’t lie. Eventually I got her from him.

“When the police came I was still in shock. I’ve no idea why he did it.

“After he’d been arrested, he came round trying to talk to me, but I just told him to go away.”

Zorita was single at the time but is now married to partner Vasile (25), with whom she lives with her children Contessa, now three, Emmanuel (18 months) and Yosef (9 months).

“I just want him to stay away from my house,” she said. “I don’t want him anywhere near.”

Keeton (29) has already served the equivalent of a substantial prison sentence while remanded in custody.

Judge Bernard Lever told him that it had been a long and difficult case, but he believed the year-long order, which involves close supervision, was the best option to protect other young children, with help and treatment for Keeton.

Judge Lever said it had been one of “the most worrying and sensitive cases” he had ever come across.

He said: “It must be the horror of every mother of a young child that someone may enter their home through an open door and carry off their child.

“It is only fortunate in this case that a young girl was able to direct her to where the baby had been taken.”

Caroline Patrick defending, told the court her client had been unable to explain his actions, but the court heard Keeton had claimed to have heard the baby crying, and decided to take her to his own address for her own protection.