School girl back home after Russian ordeal

4:37pm Tuesday 23rd September 2008

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WINCHESTER girl Vicka Osborne is home safe and sound today after a dramatic month stranded in Russia.

The eleven-year-old was today starting at her new school after she had been stopped from leaving the country because of a dispute with her father, a colonel in the Russian Army.

Col Yuri Gladkikh last month imposed an order under Russian law which allows divorced parents to block the movements of their children until they are 18.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, Col Gladkikh would not let Vicka leave Russia unless her mother Tatiana - whom she was travelling with - de-registered from a one-bedroom flat in the town of Saratov.

Vicka and her mother Tatiana Osborne were in Saratov visiting family relatives and were at Moscow airport when border guards stopped them leaving.

Some three weeks late, Vicka was today in class at her new secondary school, The Westgate in Winchester, confirmed the headteacher Julie Turvey.

Vicka's stepfather, Dr Patrick Osborne, of Ilex Close, Kings Worthy, fought a battle to free his stepdaughter.

He declined to discuss any details of the return with the Daily Echo.

"We have somebody handling the media side for us. I cannot discuss things with you. I can pass on your details," said Dr Osborne, a lecturer at Southampton University.

Previously, he had told the Daily Echo: “What we have here is someone in the military acting as a coward and using an innocent child as a pawn to try to get possession of a flat in Saratov. You don’t expect an officer to bring shame on the Russian Army.”