Tom Phillips

[Roundthemoon]

Has anyone seen this story?

Tom Phillips Is a man in New zealand who abducted his children from their mother three years ago and went on the run.

He was just recently seen in the wilderness bush in New Zealand by a farmer. The farmer took a video of him walking. The video on the dailymail and other news sites today, I tried to paste a link here , but it wouldn't seem to paste.

Apparently after the sighting, police looked for them in the area for one day, then stopped the search again.

Should they not be doing more to try to find them?

He's in a remote area. But they know his last known location. Farmers saw him.

People were saying online - could they not have brought in specialist trained outdoors teams to search the area properly.

If I was their mum I would be creating merry hell with the police, be all over the news and fundraising to pay for private searches. V odd how she seems to have just accepted it.

I read a different interview with her. She said that she was looking for them

She said that she found him once. She found his car. He got in the car and drove away quickly. She followed him, and then she lost him again.

I think she has been looking for them

I’m in NZ, and live close to this area.The guy is armed and has been known for disappearing with his kids previously. He has also been involved in an armed robbery of a bank.

General consensus around here is that the police can’t do much until he surrenders? There’s been many checkpoints, police helicopter etc searches but they haven’t turned up much. The bush is extremely dense in this area, though, and police have been searching. He is probably hiding in farmers huts or on family land and is definitely being helped, hence the evasion of police.

the reason why most believe nothing much can be done until he surrenders as there is every possibility things would end in a murder-suicide situation with the children caught up in crossfire.

Also most definitely think there’s people helping him in the bush, the area he is from has strong anti-government, anti-police sentiments from some people. Many still think he is doing the right thing by breaking custody and thus “proving a point” to the mother.

I suppose she is terrified that he will shoot the children then himself. This would be my fear in this situation.

Yes it is an odd situation and I agree with other posters that they’re probably trying to avoid a murder-suicide situation.

I assume it will at some point collapse as the children get older and have some agency. I can’t imagine it’s much fun for them, even if they have been completely brainwashed by him.

Also given there have been sightings of him, including in a supermarkets etc… maybe they will get him one day.

Yeah it's a tough one as he was an armed robber, and is a dangerous man.

In my opinion they should probably still take the risk of sending in armed forces to try to get the children. And I know it's just my opinion on safety of the internet. It would be different if I had to risk my life myself going up to him, so I can understand why they may not want to do it

But otherwise he wins.

Thanks very much for this insight. Is there anything else that you've heard about this case. It's interesting.

Thanks for the insight. I have been on the facebook page set up by family to try and keep this in the public eye and to ask for sightings and so many of the comments people have made have disgusted me. People applauding him for getting one over the court system as he was refused custody (possibly even contact?). Those poor children and their poor mother.

It’s an interesting case, isn’t it? The whole nation is gripped and feel for the poor mother and children, who haven’t been to school or had medical attention etc for 3 years!

The main reason why Tom disappeared was because of a family court dispute. There was talk about the mother being a drug addict and Tom wanting to spare his kids from her, however what he has done is much, much worse. Initially, most people were supportive of him, saying family courts always favour the mother etc. although that has died down now.

There was a reward for $80,000 (£40,000) a couple of months ago- people thought this exact figure was targeted towards the certain people who were thought to be helping him and that exact amount needed to clear a mortgage or loan. That is what I heard through the grapevine, who knows if it is true or not. The reward lapsed after a couple of weeks after no one came forward.

The terrain around this area is extremely rugged, with dense bush and hilly terrain, which somewhat explains why he is able to stay hidden. Most believe he is also changing location and staying on farms (100’s of ha), whilst being helped by these “anti government/anti family court” people. The police have set up checkpoints going in and out of the town/nearby areas for multiple weeks but it turned up nothing.

Hopefully the children get back to their mother and to society soon.

Yes, it’s terrible! Even now, I will occasionally hear someone applauding his actions, saying the family court always favours the mother and he is doing the right thing! Unbelievable.

The area where he is from is known for anti-government, anti-police etc. views, so it’s hardly surprising.

The poor children and mother, must be heart wrenching.

It's very difficult with children.

Because when a couple breaks up, both of the parents are going to want their children to be with them .

And their love for their children can make things turn nasty and desperate.

Something similar happened with my parents.

One of my parents went on the run with us from the other parent. For a while. We had police looking for us for a while

It actually happens a lot

That's a strange thing to say. I highly doubt she's just accepted it.

There's a lot more information about the case on New Zealand web-sites as you would expect and a newspaper like the NZ Herald has a lot of the history if you want to read more, as they have been on the run for several years.

It's definitely not the usual family dynamic that most of us on this site would be familiar with, while the father didn't have custody , it's notable that none of the news sites I've seen state that the mother had custody either and as Tom Phillips had been home schooling the children at the family farm before disappearing I suspect it might have been the grandparents that had custody.

For the bank-robbery Tom is suspected of, he had a smaller accomplice that though wearing a mask, witnesses believed to be female, so either it was one of the kids or someone local who has been helping them.

The area they are from is low-income rural, where plenty of people have no great love of the authorities so it's not like locals are falling over themselves to turn them in. By the way it wasn't a farmer that saw and filmed them, it was some teenagers pig-hunting on a relatives land !

This case is interesting to me, as this also happened to me. I was the child in the story.

While my life was not as extreme as this, in that my parent wasn't armed or wanted for robbery.

A lot of the other things did happen to me.

One of my parents went on the run with me from my other parent for years.

I had police looking for me. The parent who was left behind - wrote to schools in lots of places, sending them photos of me, to try to find me.

I only saw a lot of these documents much later, as the parent who was left behind, had kept copies of the documents.

So I was the child in this instance.

What I find the most damaging to me. Is as an adult , I still can't be exactly sure what was the truth.

The parent that took me obviously told me that the parent left behind was "bad and awful and didnt want me"

But when I was an adult - I found some things to show that the other parent had been looking for me.

I didnt see one of my parents for many years.

When I tried to reunite with the parent who was left behind when I was an adult. It didn't go well at all. I thought it would go well. But I think too much damage had been done.

And then my parent (the one who had been left behind) took their own life by suicide not long after that. It has been very traumatic.

I still don't know what was the full truth of what happened.

I actually joined an online forum of adults who had been abducted by one parent when they were a child. There is one online

They all said that when they managed to reunite with the parent left behind when they were an adult. That it didn't go well.

One woman said that her mother met her as an adult, couldnt cope, and then killed herself.

Another woman told me that she met her mother as an adult, and her mother was cold and angry and couldn't bond with her at all.

Yet when she was a child, her mother had spent ages searching for her.

It definitely causes a lot of damage all round.

It's sad because these acts are born out of desperation and love for the children. And then it hurts so many people.

Oh @Roundthemoon . I am so terribly sorry.

@Roundthemoon that's one of the most heartbreaking things i've read on mumsnet - 💔