Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Clarendon father in desperate search for his children

Published:Tuesday | October 25, 2022 | 12:12 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Phillip McCarthy of Summerfield, Clarendon, holds the paternity test results of his daughters whom he hasn’t seen since their mother took them in December.
Phillip McCarthy of Summerfield, Clarendon, holds the paternity test results of his daughters whom he hasn’t seen since their mother took them in December.

The last time Phillip McCarthy saw his two girls, ages eight and nine, was on December 29, 2021, when he handed them over to their mother, who was awarded visitation rights on holidays after he won custody of them in court.

McCarthy said that out of frustration, he was forced to turn to the courts to establish his right to see his girls after his attempts to visit them were repeatedly blocked.

“If I go there and I want to take them somewhere, she (mother) always come up with something to impede me from that,” he told The Gleaner.

McCarthy, who used to live in Kingston 13, eventually relocated to live in Summerfield, Clarendon, where other members of his family reside.

He had hopes of taking his daughters to the beach and on various “adventures” as he worked on bonding with them.

The case concluded in July 2021 with an order signed by Judge Dahlia Findlay in the Chapelton court, awarding him custody and giving the girls’ mother residential access, plus half of every holiday.

The girls then spent one month with her and the following month, they were back with their father.

When the 2021-2022 academic year began, McCarthy said he purchased two tablets so they could continue their classes online at the Kingston-based primary school at which they were enrolled.

He said that although they had relocated to live with him in Clarendon, he made no effort to change their school as classes were still being held online because of the pandemic.

Last December, after the girls spent Christmas with him, their mother came for them so they could ring in the new year with her.

That was the last time McCarthy laid eyes on his daughters.

Heartbroken and with no idea as to where his daughters are, he showed The Gleaner pairs of slippers he had bought for them, adding that he is always getting stuff for them. Now he wonders if they will get the chance to enjoy them.

“Mentally, it has affected me because I want to know if they are okay. I just want to hear from them. I just want to see them because they are pretty young girls,” he said.

Yearning to have an input in his children’s lives, he reached out to his children’s mother, accusing her of being selfish in not allowing him to bond with them.

He added that he is certain they are his children as the court had ordered DNA tests, which proved his paternity.

All his efforts to locate the girls have come up empty as they were pulled from the school they attended in Kingston.

Their mother has also resigned from her last known place of employment.

“I hope to have communication with you and my children,” he said in a desperate plea to their mother as he spoke to The Gleaner. “It will soon be a year since I haven’t seen them. I need to see my girls.”

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com