A smiling Amy Grimshaw entered the room at Eccleshill police station yesterday to face the press for what she hoped would be the last time.

More than six months after her desperate appeal in front of the cameras for the return of her one-year-old son Daniel, she was hoping to close the doors on the ordeal.

Following the sentence of five men for a total of 17 years at Bradford Crown Court for Daniel's abduction, Amy said the family hoped to return to normal.

"Today's sentence at court was not the important issue for me. What is important is that Daniel is well and is home," she said. "We are looking forward to getting back to normality."

She added that Daniel had become less "clingy" and that she thought he was young enough to forget.

Sitting alongside Amy, Chief Superintendent Stuart Hyde, who was in charge of the case, said the police were grateful for the help of the Muslim community. Speaking of the sentencing at Bradford Crown Court, he said: "The judge was minded of the fact that the bond between mother and child is a very strong one. He wanted to recognise the suffering that had been caused. As a result, he has handed out some fairly stiff sentences for the offence for which they had been convicted."

He added that he would be making contact with the police in Pakistan and Kashmir to try to track down Daniel's father, Murhzar Mahmood.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Telegraph & Argus, Lloyd Ruddock, 36, of Parkside Road, West Bowling, and Denis Hunter, 40, an illegal immigrant, of Rayner House, Manchester Road, Bradford, who had snatched Daniel from his mother, were each jailed for four years.

Barrington Depass, 19, of Westfield Crescent, Wrose, and Khalid Mahmood Khan, 26, of Westfield Crescent, Wrose, were each jailed for three-and-a-half years for the "pivotal" roles they played during the abduction, including the use of mobile phones to co-ordinate the snatch.

Christopher Kellett, 26, of Swain House Crescent, Bradford, was jailed for two years. He was described as being "the least culpable" member of the gang, as he had only bought the cars used in the abduction.

Daniel's uncle, Mohammed Arshad, 30, of Killinghall Road, Bradford Moor, was given a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years after he admitted perverting the course of justice by helping the boy's father, Murzhar Mahmood, to flee.

Judge Ian Dobkin said the abduction amounted to every mother's worst nightmare.

Outside court, solicitor Mohammed Hussain of J. Holden Solictors read a statement out on behalf of Mohammed Arshad.

Mr Hussain said his client maintained he was not involved in the abduction and the outcome had fully vindicated this.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.