$460,000 bought freedom for boy

A US family paid a substantial ransom to buy the freedom of a five-year-old boy, his mother and her brother to end a 10-day ordeal under virtual house arrest in a hotel in central China, the mother, Camille Colvin, said yesterday.

Mrs Colvin, her son Griffin Guo and her brother Cal Elliott left Zhengzhou late on Thursday evening after being confined to a room at the luxury Sofitel Hotel for 10 days as she negotiated terms of their release with her former husband Guo Rui.

'It has been an extremely stressful situation,' she said in Beijing. 'We are happy that it has come to an end and we are very tired. There was noise at all hours, with at least two Guo family members around, telephone calls and meetings at all hours, while we were barricaded in a single room.'

She declined to say how much was paid, but sources close to the family put it at about US$60,000 (HK$468,000). Mr Guo was reported to have demanded US$130,000.

Mr Guo and Mrs Colvin married in December 1990. She left China in June 2000, taking Griffin with her to the US, where she divorced Mr Guo and remarried.

On July 8, Mr Guo visited New York to see Griffin and took him to China, via Canada. The New York state police and federal authorities issued an arrest warrant against Mr Guo for kidnapping.