Brett King alleged him and wife Naghmeh were warned “not to question” their five-year-old’s treatment or they “would not see him” until he was 16
Ashya King’s father today claimed British medics threatened to take his desperately sick boy away from him for 11 years.
Revealing fresh details of the family’s torture, Brett King alleged he and wife Naghmeh were warned “not to question” their five-year-old’s treatment or they “would not see him” until he was 16.
The worried parents fled Southampton General Hospital for Malaga in Spain almost two weeks ago after clashing with experts in the UK.
But they were arrested and locked up for three days accused of “neglect” as they battled to get their son specialist treatment for brain cancer abroad.
Following a huge legal battle, little Ashya is now in Prague awaiting hi-tech therapy, but Brett, 51, said the boy had been left traumatised by the ordeal.
He admitted: “He is still confused and frightened. Every time I leave him now he starts to cry and must be thinking ‘Will I see you tomorrow?’ When we were in jail he must have been like, ‘where have my parents gone?’
“He is still very traumatised. Laying in bed just for a minute for him must feel like an hour. It is like torture.”
Clutching a brown teddy bear, Ashya visited the hi-tech Proton Therapy Centre in Prague for the first time today.
He is expected to begin the treatment – a highly targeted type of radiotherapy – on Monday.
And for the first time Brett revealed the full extent of the alleged threat that made he and Naghmeh, 45, desperate to take their son there.
He claimed of British medics: “They said to me if I question anything and ask questions as a father, they would take my son away from me. Not just for the treatment but until he was 16.
“So I said ‘I wouldn’t be able to see my son for 11 years!’. I said to my wife ‘this is something so serious that our son could be taken away until he is 16’.
“Eleven years without us, he wouldn’t know his parents, his brothers, his sisters or anyone. We couldn’t question them any more.
"We couldn’t let them know our feelings because one mistake on our side and they’d take him away.
“As a father I was not prepared for any other treatment – treatment that would be so strong it would be worse than the illness itself.”
And he said of the centre in Prague: “I have complete confidence they will give my son the best possible start. This is all we wanted from the beginning.”
Medic Jan Stary said Ashya had a 70% chance of survival if the treatment, costing around £70,000, was effective.
Ashya – staying at the nearby Motol University Hospital – was seen leaving the proton beam centre on a stretcher yesterday and his dad was also spotted kissing his head.
Doctors examined him for almost six hours and built him a made-to-measure “cocoon pouch” designed to keep his frail body still when he begins the therapy.
Brett also revealed the “good news” that doctors had found “no visible regrowth” of Ashya’s cancer, six weeks after his tumour was removed.
The family now face an agonising wait for new test results, which will reveal further clues about his condition.
Brett added: “We’ll find out in the next couple of days from the spinal tap if there is any microscopic cancer in any of the fluids, but we are hoping not.
“When you see the machine it looks like something from Nasa.
“It is the future. When the proton beam comes out it is charged at 60% of the speed of light. They can completely control it.”
Ashya was admitted to the Motol Hospital on Monday after the Kings – free from jail and finally able to move their son – flew from Malaga.
He will make the short journey across the city to the privately-owned Proton Therapy Clinic five days a week for six weeks.
Asked if Ashya knew he had cancer, Brett said: “What is cancer to a child? He knows he’s ill because he is in bed.
“I have told him he is going to get better now. I would not wish this on my worst enemy. When it is the person you love, money doesn’t even come into it.”
Meanwhile, it today emerged that Portsmouth City Council have offered the family support in educating Ashya’s four school-age siblings.
They are all still staying in Malaga with their older brothers Danny, 23, and Naveed, 20. Brett explained: “I don’t want to get into anymore trouble for my children being out of school.
“We have told the authorities they are not being schooled in England and that we are exploring the avenue of them going to school in Prague or Spain.”
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust yesterday declined to issue an official statement.
But a source made it clear that “the trust absolutely refutes the suggestion this family was threatened”.
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