John Ingram rescues mother of two from kidnappers in France

On the evening of the raid four thugs arrived at Jane’s home in Leyton, east London whilst she was breastfeeding her younger child. Filming the raid, they dragged Jane from the house and forced her into the boot of their car. In the meantime the other thugs set about Jane’s husband beating him badly and leaving him unconscious with the two very young children unattended. Jane was initially taken to a secret house in Cheltenham where she was held for a few days before being drugged and taken in the boot of a car to a secret destination in the Jura mountains in France.

John was contacted by the newspaper in order to find and rescue Jane. At this point it was unknown where Jane had been taken. The only clue given to John was that it was a possibility that it was Fred who had taken Jane and that it was believed he had a residence in France. Armed with this information, John contacted a young woman now then living in America who he knew to have previously been kidnapped by Fred and taken to an unknown destination in an attempt to de-programme her. She had been a Moonie. Although she was happy to help, she was unaware of the exact location to which she had been taken. She was however, able to describe the location, the nearest village and a description of the house in the Jura mountains. With this information John travelled to Geneva accompanied by a journalist from the newspaper.

At the beginning of December, on arriving in Geneva, John and the journalist, who we will call Michael, hired a car and drove to the village in the Jura mountains, as described by John’s informant. After a search of the local area, a house fitting the description given to John, was located in a remote position in the valley outside the village. A bright green, English registered motor cycle was parked outside the house, further indicating that this was where Jane was being held. With support from John’s London office it was established that the motor cycle was registered to Fred at an address in Cheltenham. The next morning, with the aid of binoculars, surveillance was maintained on the property by John and Michael. This was continued for the next few days in the snow from the hillside overlooking the valley.

When John had been discussing the matter with his American informant she had warned him that Fred had a close relationship with the local police and it would be hard to gain their assistance in releasing Jane. Nevertheless John decided it was time to call for their help and visited the police station in the village. Their response was just as John’s informant had suggested it would be, stating that Fred wouldn’t do such a thing. As their response was so aggressive John and Michael left the police station returning to their hotel. To their surprise the local police had beaten them to it and had already ransacked their room and removed paperwork. It became immediately obvious that the hotelier was on notice to advise the police of John and Michael’s return. John duly paid the reluctant hotelier and the two left the village heading for Geneva via the mountains in order to miss a confrontation at the main border control. After a precarious trip along the icy mountain roads, John and Michael arrived in Geneva and booked into the Hotel International late in the evening. By morning John had contacted Amnesty International in Paris for assistance and arranged a meeting with them later that day in a safe house.

On arriving at the safe house and meeting the Amnesty International representative, a Red Indian who resided in a tepee on the banks of the Seine, their story was relayed in great detail. As a result, Man, the Red Indian organised a meeting with the police at their French headquarters. By the next morning John had arranged with a colleague back in London to bring Jane’s husband, Mohammed, to come to Paris to give evidence to the police. Together with John’s evidence and that of Mohammed’s, the police agreed to take action. To do this, under French law, it was required to travel to the legal jurisdiction of the house where Jane was being held and go before a judge to obtain an order for the police to raid, not only the house where Jane was being held but also the village police station. This meant an urgent trip back to the Jura mountains without sleep. The party travelling back consisted of John, Michael, John’s colleague from London, Mohammed, a solicitor from Amnesty International and a police officer from the police headquarters in Paris. The order was duly obtained and the raid made on the house and Jane was freed. Various arrests were made both in the house and at the local police station. The party returned once more to Paris accompanied this time by Jane. The party stayed safely in one of Paris’s top hotels where John was needless to say, hounded by the French press.

Had John been two days later in freeing Jane she would have been sold to the white slave trade and probably never been seen again. Fred was later imprisoned in the UK.