Dad begs: Bring back my son

SIX-YEAR-OLD Mark Prescott remains captive for a fifth day today at the hands of kidnappers who snatched him on Wednesday outside his school - San Fernando Primary Roman Catholic.

The fate of this child remains unknown up to late yesterday. But the pain of his anxious father, Wayne Prescott, 40, at his Cocoyea Village home yesterday was quite evident. “I’ve had a few winks of sleep and little to eat since Wednesday; I want my son with me,” a tearful Prescott appealed to his son’s kidnappers yesterday. The home of the Prescotts is a small downstairs apartment where life started afresh a year ago at Cocoyea Village for Prescott (Wayne). Mark’s mother died in child birth four years ago. She had given birth to twins who survived.

When Sunday Newsday visited the family around midday yesterday, Prescott was dozing off on his bed. He is re-married and wife was fixing him a meal while Mark’s sisters, twins Syanne and Arianne, four, were sitting quietly in the living room.  Its mind-boggling why a ransom of $150,000 was demanded by  the kidnappers, Prescott said. It was the only telephone call he received since Wednesday night from the kidnappers. “But why nothing yet,” Prescott, his face swollen and eyes red through lack of sleep, asked himself. Prescott works with a contractor supplying services to with BpTT. He is pursuing a computer course and has a 19-year-old daughter living the United States. He said Mark was usually taken to school on mornings in a van with other children by a woman, Margaret Pierre. It was around 3.30 pm, Prescott said, when Pierre pulled up in front the house, the van packed with school children, but without Mark.

Prescott rushed off to the school on Harris Promenade. Just how was it possible for the kidnappers to snatch the boy and escape without anyone seeing is baffling. The school is a stone’s throw from the Police Station.  The High Court and mere foot’s away form busy Library Corner.  Police told Sunday News day yesterday that Mark was leaving his Second-year classroom, but was called back by his teacher for a book. One of his classmates walked behind him as they left the classroom. “Since then, no one can tell me anything more than that,” Prescott said.  The father said Mark is a “smart kid” who likes to talk a lot. He said he is fearing the worse with each passing day. “The phone rings and we are all excited; then is like you feel sunken,” the father said. Asked if he would pay the $150,000 ransom, Prescott, said: “Where in the world I could get that money? But they (kidnappers) are not calling.”