Kidnapped American Boy Wants to Stay in Brazil
June 18, 2009 — -- Sean Goldman, the nine-year-old American who was taken to Brazil by his mother for a vacation and never returned, has told a psychologist that he wants to stay in Brazil.
In the transcript, released by the Brazilian family's lawyers on Wednesday, Goldman tells a psychologist that if he is sent back to New Jersey to be with his father David Goldman he will "break down totally." At several points in the interview he says, "I want to stay here in Brazil."
The boy's father, David Goldman, told "Good Morning America" earlier this week that he was elated at a Brazilian Supreme Court ruling that the country would abide by the Hague Convention, essentially clearing the way for approximately 70 allegedly kidnapped American children to come home, he said, including Sean, who was four when he was taken.
Goldman said he last saw Sean about two weeks ago.
"He's struggling," he said. "They're putting a lot of pressure on him. They've been waging this campaign to turn him against me."
The interview with Sean Goldman was conducted Monday by psychologist Terezinha Feres-Carneiro in a Rio de Janeiro hospital. It wasn't immediately clear who paid for the psychologist's services, the Associated Press reported.
When asked to draw a picture of his family, the boy drew only his stepfather, sister and Brazilian grandparents.
It's unclear how the boy's statements to the psychologist will influence the ongoing custody battle.
Visits have been so emotionally difficult that Goldman worries the stress from the excessively supervised visits could be damaging to Sean.
Goldman said a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation has proved that his son has been subjected to what he called parental alienation.
In 2008, Sean's mother Bruna Bianchi died while giving birth to a second child conceived withwith her new husband, Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, a Rio de Janeiro lawyer. Since Bianchi's death, Sean has been living with his stepfather.
Goldman said today that he had no inkling this would happen when he drove wife and son to airport five years ago.
"We all gave each other hugs and kisses," he said. "I waved goodbye with the blessings of a safe trip."
