FOREIGN Secretary William Hague was asked to step in to help a Hampshire dad get back his abducted children in the weeks leading up to their deaths, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Justin Mellersh, from the New Forest, had tracked his family down to Turkey and was desperately trying to work with the authorities there to get his eight-year-old son Yaanis and sixy e a r - o l d d a u g h t e r Mira back from their mother.

He and his family, who still live in M i n s t e a d , enlisted the help of New Forest East MP Julian Lewis in the hope of recovering the children before their mother, Elke, disappeared again with them.

Mr Lewis and his team offered support and advice throughout the search, assisting with contacting the British Embassy in Germany and then in Turkey, when they were moved there by their mother.

Mr Lewis spoke to Mr Hague, but their plight ended in tragedy last Friday when the two youngsters were killed by their 45-year-old G e r m a n mother.

As reported in yesterday’s Echo, the children were abducted from their family home in Germany by Elke nearly two years ago, after Justin was awarded custody in Germany.

The Mellersh family launched a hunt for the youngsters, who had lived in Minstead before the family move abroad.

Their bodies, along with their mother’s were discovered in a farmhouse in the seaside town of Soke, on Turkey’s Aegean coast.

Reports in Turkey say that the family died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The property’s windows had been taped up and a note on the front door stated “Caution: Toxic”.

Mr Lewis said: “In September I spoke with William Hague in the Foreign Office about the matter and we were working to see whether or not there was any chance of recovering the children from Turkey before their mother absconded again to another place.

“We have done our very best to help the family in the past and if they want us to intervene in the future we will do so.”