A Letter to My Daughter - Abducted by a Cult

0:00It's the Opperman Report and now here is Investigator at Opperman. Okay, welcome to the Opperman Report. I'm your host, Private Investigator Ed Opperman. Now you can get a hold of me at Opperman Investigations and Strategic Solutions. If you reach out to me through my email, Opperman Investigations at gmail.com. Otherwise, if you want to get hold of me about the show, you're emailing at OppermanReport at gmail.com or go to the website, OppermanReport.com. It's a contact button there, contact form and a red circle is the best place to fly and straight these days. Our guest today is Mr. Ian Bryson. And he's written a book called, I Love You Like One, a letter to my daughter abducted by a cult. You can find him at iLoveYouLikeOne.com and he has a YouTube channel as well. And it's a heartbreaking story.

1:01I don't know if I want to get into this. I just wanted to get one of these heartbreaking stories with these poor dads who go through hell through the family court system. And this one has the additional trouble of a cult involved. So Mr. Ian Bryson, are you here? Yes, sir. I'm here. Thank you so much. Hey, before we get into the story here, okay? I know it's still raw because we were talking off the air. But tell us about yourself. Who is Ian Bryson? So I am just a pretty normal guy. I love animals. I love the outdoors. I love traveling, reading. I love Dave Matthews band. And I love spending time with my wife and friends. And currently I work as a group facilitator and a teacher for money. My heart is in working with survivors and exposing organized child abuse and helping people who have been through it because that hit my plate.

2:02But really what I want to do is just read fiction at my house and not have to do anything. That would be my be a dream. But life took a direction on me after I graduated college that I just could not have predicted. And I don't regret any of it because I've had to see something that as you said it's absolutely horrible and it's been probably the worst thing that could have happened to me. But through that you also get to see truth, right? And what is really there. And so that's been a blessing. And I feel like I'm here to tell people what I've been through. So that they don't have to go through it. And I'm still fighting for my daughter as well. And then she is everything. She's the reason that I do everything at this point. Now when I look on Amazon as a description of your book, I love you like one, a letter

3:05to my daughter abducted by a call by Ian Bryson. When I look at the description, it looks like everything broke loose in 2010. But what was life like before 2010? What led up to all this? So it did. It just snapped in 2010. But before that, I graduated from Yukon with a master's degree in 2003. And I thought I was probably going to go to law school. I wanted to help people. I wanted the education that the founding fathers of the United States had. And I didn't really know beyond that. And then my first wife walked into my life. She was a young Polish woman over on a three month visa. And immediately we were engaged within a couple of weeks. I knew she was going to be my wife. And I also knew immediately that there was trauma in her past. But I was ignorant to trauma. The fact that it could be still with her at age 21 or 22, there she was.

4:07I didn't know it still could be a problem. So we had a daughter in the United States. And then she convinced me to move to the Netherlands to be closer to her family. And I was adventurous. And I thought I could get a job in the Hague with my degree in political science. And it was 2008. So the euro was worth more, like, double the dollar. And in the Netherlands, they speak English. So I said yes to make my wife happy. And for the adventure, and we moved over there. And as my daughter started to grow older, the cycles with my wife continued. Like the cycles that showed me she was traumatized. She had no memory of her childhood. She would flip from my love to I hate you with no explanation. And things like that were happening from the beginning. And then my daughter started to come back from Poland with signs of abuse. And I didn't see it. Like I didn't say, wait, she's being abused because I was blind.

5:11Like I had a blinders up and I trusted my wife. And I didn't think it was possible that my little two, three, almost four year old could be being abused. It was just an impossibility that like I was seeing it and not seeing it at the same time. Well, what were the signs? So when my daughter came back from Poland, she would regress to earlier ages, like start wedding the bed or pooping her pants, baby talk. She would start having nightmares and throwing tantrums, screaming when it's time for a shower, not my peepee, not my peepee. And I think that other than bruises as well, which she said were from grandpa. But screaming not my peepee, my wife always said it's a soap irritation. And this happened after several returns from Poland. And it just got under my skin. I was like, what are you talking about a soap irritation? Initially I trusted her and then it got to the point where I'm like, no, it's not a soap irritation. This happened last time.

6:13Why would you continue using the same kind of soap? And she was there for a month or two. It just doesn't make any sense. And her terror doesn't make any sense. So I started telling my wife we needed to see the doctor and she would just say no, I know it's a soap irritation. My daughter was also talking about her grandfather's private parts. And just crazy obvious signs that abuse is happening. But in order for that to be happening, my wife had to know. And something happened in my brain where I didn't believe it could be happening. And also they were with me. So I just was like, all right, I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to get to the bottom of it. I could see my daughter heal when she was home. But I didn't put two and two together until it was too late. Yeah, when you're describing that, I wrote down no brainer. These symptoms are no brainer. Yes. So obvious. But what was the wife's, you said her back on the trauma.

7:15How do you know about that? And when did you come to that conclusion? Well, in my, so I met her in 2004 and I have my journal from 2004. And in that I have borderline personality disorder question mark, incest question mark. And it just, it started with her having absolutely no memories of her childhood. Like she would say things like the nicest thing my dad ever did is bring me one cup of tea. And it just would blow my mind. Like what are you, what are you talking about that? That's the nicest thing your dad ever did. And he's in your life and he's in our life. It's bringing you one cup of tea. There's also just the shifts in personality. She going from my love you to I hate you with no ability to understand that the other had been real yesterday. And it was just all now I feel like I hate you. So we early on she started counseling for what we thought was borderline personality disorder.

8:16And then I just, I didn't know about, you know, PTSD and DID dissociative identity disorder and things like that. So I didn't, I didn't understand that, you know, once, once things were good and we were dancing as a family, she was the happiest woman that I'd ever known in my life, that it could go back to the I hate you again, which is what ended up happening. And it got to the point where I was looking for marks on my wife's body because I couldn't even tell. For sure, if it was the same person because everything about her was different to the point where she even looked different to me. But there were just so many signs in my house, but one of the things I was, she moved me, or we moved to the Netherlands and I was there with nobody, you know, so she was my partner, she was my, she was my everything. I trusted her. I had to trust her. We didn't have family or friends. Did she have people in the Netherlands?

9:16Because she's from Poland. She did not have people in the Netherlands, but her family visited quite often. Her sister and her father, her father the most, but her sister also came to visit. And then they would go to Poland quite frequently. Yeah, quick question. Because then you mentioned that she was in counseling, you too went to counseling. So then what about when you saw these symptoms on your daughter, did you rush to a counselor with that? I would recommend to everybody, you know, with hindsight's 2020, but as soon as you see this man, get it documented in the future. You know, but what do you do back then? Did you take your daughter to a counselor? So I did not. And I considered it. I put directions to both the US Embassy and to a doctor in my back pocket. And I was taking care of my daughter for the last three weeks we're together and I was considering doing this. And one thing. So I was afraid of my wife. And I didn't, I didn't see. I didn't actually, it didn't actually click that my daughter was abused until after the, the abduction happened.

10:17Then, then it all just like came rushing in like, oh my gosh, how did I miss that? Like, but it didn't, it didn't click. Like I knew it's denial. It's denial. You just want it out denial. Yeah, you don't want to admit it. You just, you can't face it. It's just the, I was, I was at, I was at the, so right after my wife told me she was going to take our daughter back to the cult. Like within two days, I was at the psychologist's office who knew both of us telling him that she was threatening to do this and that she had our daughter's passport. And he said, well, that's illegal. She can't do that. But I didn't go any further and say, and my daughter has bruises, you know, and my daughter screaming about her peepee. It was just like, I was living it and it was tearing me apart. But I couldn't put, I wasn't putting it all together at one time. You know, like I knew, I knew I needed to do this. I needed help. And my biggest fear was that they, my wife assured me she was leaving with our daughter. But, but the rest of it, I just thought like I have time.

11:20I'll figure it out. I just need this to slow it out. You know, and I need them to not leave the country. There's the first time you mentioned a cult. So what kind of cult is this? Who was the cult? What's going on with that? So I had, when my wife said it, I had absolutely no idea what she could mean. She said, she said my family's a cult. She said that she has Stockholm syndrome. And she said that she was taking our daughter back to Poland because of mind control. And so like, when she said that to me, I told her, you're crazy. What are you talking about? And it wasn't until after, you know, so she said that and then three weeks later it happened. Three weeks later I gave my daughter a hug, thinking she's going to the library to a friend and watch my wife and daughter leave. And then I'm talking to a friend and saying, I don't know what to do. It's crazy again. And it clicks that they're gone. And that's when I started to understand that everything she was telling me is happening.

12:25And so I sprinted to the police and tried to get help, tried to get help for four months. And so it's a generational cult family that practices ritual abuse and uses trauma based mind control. And it's just through the process of, this is what my wife said. This is what I experienced. This is what happened. This is what happened when I tried to get help. And so it's kind of like identifying a bird, you know, like these are the characteristics of it. And it's, it was a planned abduction of my daughter, which my wife warned me about. And her father is in control. And that's why I couldn't tell if it was my wife at times. That's why she had no memory of her childhood. And she told me she was going to take our daughter and then she did. So it's like, people will ask me what's the name of the cult, you know, what's the structure look like.

13:28And I don't know. But I know that these types of stories are coming out. Lots of people are just, you know, their families are practicing evil things, right. And that's what it comes down to. It's like the inversion of how I would want to raise my children. People are doing the exact opposite of that for the purposes of control. Well, let me ask you this. Is this one of the issues that like when you went to the police, did you tell them, hey, this is a cult. And then right away they said, oh, you know, you know, that's what happened. Yeah, that's so it was, it was even worse than that because like my, my daughter was, you know, she just left my house and I thought she was going to the library and I had been watching very closely for three weeks because of the warning, the assurance that she was going to take my daughter. I was watching and then I knew that I slipped and let her get away from me.

14:29Yeah. And so I was absolutely desperate. I was like screaming. The police wouldn't even take a report. So I like I held out my hands and suggested arrest me. You know, do what? I was yelling at him. You got to stop this little girl from leaving this country now. And yeah, like as it went on and the US Embassy told me that they're not going to help me. One of them recommended I re-abductor my daughter on my own. Excuse me. Like it started to make me like sound and actually be a little bit crazy. You know, like I was so desperate and so scared. And as I'm re- I'm realizing for the first time what my wife meant when she said her family is a cult and she's taking our daughter. So it was blowing my mind. Yeah. And I blew other people's minds when I was, you know, shooting this stuff out at warp speed and, you know, not sleeping and just I need help. I need help. I need help. It's strange a lot of people for sure.

15:30Yeah, that's one of the problems. A Sreshing Family Court, you know, you go in there with cult allegations, but even sexual abuse allegations, unless you really got that documented man, you know, it kind of puts you on the defensive, you know, when you're making those kind of allegations. Now the burdens on you. Well, you're the problem. You're the one trying to keep your child with your mother for the one from the father. You're the one. You're really going to get your ducks in a row with that kind of stuff. And even a lot of lawyers won't touch that. They don't keep you away from it. How old was your daughter this day with this library? You keep talking about how old was she on that day? She was a month away from her fourth birthday. Okay. Four years old. Not much you can do that. How much you talking? Yeah. Okay. So then what happens now? You go to court ultimately, right? You get into a courtroom. Well, that, that, I didn't get into a courtroom until four years later. Okay. I just, I continued trying to go to the Dutch police for help for several weeks after the

16:30abduction. I continued trying to work with the US Embassy. And then I just, I would write to different human trafficking organizations and anyone. Then I wrote to reporters. I wrote to lawyers. Just anyone to try to get help. And I filed a report with the Secretary of State under the Hague Convention. So that, the Hague Convention is a treaty which both the United States, Poland and the Netherlands, or all of them have signed, which is to supposedly protect children from being removed from their country of residence to another country. But so I, I filled out that because I wanted to go to the legal route. And they told me that I would have to wait two years to get it into court. And at, at that point, I just, I, I, I wasn't willing to wait two years. Wait, wait, wait, wait. But, but what the Hague be the route to pursue there? Like, wouldn't you want to see a local family court attorney there in the Netherlands?

17:35Yeah. That's, that's what the, that's what they would do is eventually bring it back to the jurisdiction of the Netherlands where my daughter lived. But it was, it was wait two years is what the Secretary of State was telling me to do. To, in order for that to happen. And so I, I'm dealing with like my daughter, my daughter's being abused. Wait, because you had to go to the Hague first, then they had to reject it before you can go to the local court. I, I, I don't. So you're, you're saying that you think I could have just gone to a local court in the Netherlands and other. I think that's what I would have done right away, especially my experience with the Hague. I did some work for the Hague. And I wasn't really impressed when we could efficiency of the Hague. Okay. You know, I could try to get paid from the Hague, man. What would you feel? I didn't even think about going to a local court. Oh, and that's probably, we can't get 20, 20, one of the downsides of living in a foreign country is I just didn't know how it worked or what I should do. And the, well, the, the extra issue is she's in Poland. You're in Netherlands, you know, but then she did take the kid from, from Netherlands

18:38up to the point. Yes. Okay. So what happens when you finally get into court? What happens now? Well, so I didn't, I didn't get into court right or what, like I, I did the Hague Abduction report. They said two years. And I said, no, I'm not waiting two years. And I, I drove over where I flew from Boston to Amsterdam, ran in a car, drove to Poland, and I assaulted my father and along the street. And just totally desperate. Just my intention was just, all right, now you're going to look at this closely. Now you're going to investigate. I'm making you investigate basically. And I, I thought when that happened, like I stood tall and I thought, now they're going to do a child abuse investigation. This will be over shortly. And I ended up in car straight into Poland for 50 months. Yeah. So I'm out of here. Yeah. So I, it turns out that like the court I was tried in, a judge there is best friends with my father in law. They didn't, the court stated on record. They don't believe in ritual abuse.

19:38Yeah. And, and I, I wasn't allowed to call witnesses on my behalf. But that was a question for you. Yes. For a simple battery. Like how did you break bones? What do you have? No, they, they charged me with attempted murder. Okay. What did you have a weapon? What was going on? I, I did have a hammer. I did not, I didn't use it, but they, they said I used it. Yeah. And it was just, it was just because I had the hammer, they could just twist it how they wanted to. The medical report, poor doesn't have any hammer injuries. I did, I didn't think about it. You can have a butter knife in your, in your pocket in some of these places. You know, some of these. I did, I did think about killing him like that, that crossed my mind. I had four months to process what I should do. But when it came down to what I, I didn't, I didn't try to. That wasn't, that wasn't what I was doing. I was just trying to put myself in the spotlight. So they would listen to me. And, and it just didn't work. You know, I want to, I want to, that's not going to work now. How bad were his injuries? Not bad. He stood up and walked around and, um, he, he was, I, I, just, I

20:41punched him four or five times, but he was, he was blocking the punches. So I didn't, you know, didn't break his jaw or, you know, his eye socket or anything like that. They were just punches. Um, now, what about this? Was this fight? Was it in front of the kid? No, no. No. So it was, I knew as an alcoholic, he was going to come out and throw his beer cans away, because I lived with him when I, when I was engaged. And so I just, I'd waited in the car for him to come down with his beer cans. And at that point, I, I chased him. And so it was, it was like in the, one of the main streets of town, because they live kind of downtown in, uh, in Poland, at Stargard, Poland. So it was, it was down like the back streets. And then it turned in, uh, the punching happened in front of like a shop. Okay. Now, but the day of the book or like right before the punching, did you try to arrange a meeting with your daughter? Hey, I just want to visit my daughter peacefully, anything like that. I, I didn't because of what was happening.

21:43Like they, they, they, they stole my daughter. And then, um, so for, for four months, I was trying to get help. And their story was that they escaped from me and fear their lives and end of story. And so, so like there, my, my wife wouldn't talk to me. My daughter was four, so I couldn't talk to my daughter without my wife. And, and my, my parents turned against me. So like even, even my family wasn't, wasn't fighting with me, which my, my plea was please just evaluate my daughter. You know, in this situation, sure, you don't have to believe me, but you don't believe the other side either. Like the child is the innocent. We need to evaluate her now. Um, but with no one, with no one standing in my corner, um, I just, you know, it, it wouldn't have made sense to, for me to say, Hey, hey guys, can I see my daughter? Because I knew they were a cult that just stole my daughter.

22:46You know, you know what I mean? Like they, they literally just took her out of my home and, and, are, are, they're actively trying to write me out of her life. And, um, and so there's no, there's no possibility through them. That would only be through legal processes. And the legal processes are saying I'm going to have to wait for two years. Right. And then with this criminal charge, did you try to fight that or did you plead guilty? How does that work over there? So I, I basically got, um, like I tried to, I tried to, I got prepared for trial. I had, I had a plan to question the witnesses because I knew, I knew my wife was just running on a script that was given to her and she wouldn't be able to answer my questions. And when I, when I tried to do what I had planned, the judge decided, because I, I didn't care about my charges. I wasn't, I wasn't there to like, yeah, I, I did what I did. No, I didn't attempt the murder, but that's neither here nor there because I'm here

23:46for a platform to, to get my daughter evaluated. And so because of that, the judge banned me from the trial. And, uh, and I was, so I wasn't, I was, um, well, I was, I was found, um, delusional as what, as what they did because, um, so the, the, the, I'm guessing your theory was like, okay, I'm going to question my, but then the judge says, will your wife, wasn't even a witness? She wasn't there at the crime. You, she's not a witness to, you can't testify her. Right. They didn't, they didn't care about like my reason for being there. They, they, they cared about the, what I did, right? The attempted murder, the, the, the assault that's, that's, that's, that's what the trial was about. And they didn't care about the why at all. Yeah, it's two separate, it's two separate things. And, and on the other hand, you don't want them holding that again. Say, well, I'm a good dad. Yeah, I'm not going to take my daughter. You know, the, the, the shouldn't be held against me. But of course it was, man. Yes, it was. Oh, yeah. Now forget that man. Yeah. Now you, I got a real uphill battle.

24:48I would advise anybody not to do with that. To take this. Yeah. I would too. Yeah. Yeah. So the last of you on this, this theory of, I'll take a hammer and get into court to question my wife. That's no good, man. That's the, I know, man. If only we could go back, you know, yeah. Now I, I didn't know what to do. You know, it was something that hit my plate that I could have never imagined. And I was dealing with it all alone. I know, man. I just trying to do the best as a dad that, because you got it, because you talk about trauma, hurt trauma, just imagine the audience should understand his trauma. When he's seeing these signs in his little daughter, this stuff is so traumatic. It's so heartbreaking. And so that you, it flips a switch in your head, man. That, you know, it causes trauma. Yeah. And when you see your lover, don't you supposed to be protecting your little daughter? You know? So. Yeah. It, like, it's hard to describe, but it's like, as, as my, as this little girl's dad, like, I would have done anything to stop her from being further traumatized.

25:53You know, like, like pretty much anything. And, and it was like the, just the last thing in the world that can be happening. And it's happening on my watch. And it just, it literally, it drives you crazy. You know, because it's too, too big for you to do anything about. And then you had no one around. They said your family turned their backs. But now what about like other fathers? Like, when I was going through my custody thing, I went to father's room. Right groups, you know, and we had to come around. We, you know, we could commiserate with each other. I guess I'm going to show all the time. Uh, the head of the father's right group. Um, did you have any, any support at all? We, and how are you earning a living there during this period of time too? In, in the Netherlands or in Poland? Well, I, either one, like, when all this is going on with court and stuff. Now, did you get out on bail? I'm on, but pre-trail today, to the hearing? No, I, I spent, yeah, I spent 19 months in pre-trail prison on 23 hour day lockdown. Uh, so, so that, that made it so that I, I couldn't seek extra help. I couldn't, I didn't have a computer.

26:53I didn't have a phone. I wasn't allowed to communicate with the outside world or anyone outside of myself. So I really wasn't, I wasn't permitted to contact any of these groups or get any help or support until late, until two years later when I was, uh, in another facility. And then I did have internet and I did start to reach out to other survivors and other fathers. Um, and, and just get support and tell each other our stories and, and get resources. You know, there, there aren't any resources to, to go scoop out my daughter that I knew about at the time. Um, now, now I, I could point someone in the right direction if they're, if their child is taken and they have legal rights on that child. There are people who will help, but I didn't know about any of this. And I, I was just, I, and I was locked away for so long that I just, I was alone until after it was settled with my case. You know, and then now I have a lot of, a lot of contacts and a lot of people who have gone through similar situations.

27:58Now, now you say that right now you, you would direct someone to, to help them if their, their child was in a situation. What, what, what you suggest they do? So, uh, the association for the recovery of children, okay, is, uh, is a, is a one place in this. I just met them last year. Um, Basel Baz is, he's, uh, he's a retired CIA op who started, uh, the association, association for the recovery of children in the 90s. Um, and he, uh, he goes and gets American children who have been abducted. And he, he does it in, in the United States, he doesn't in foreign countries. And, and basically if in my situation, because I did have legal custody of my child and she wasn't American citizen, uh, he, he would have gone and gotten my child had I known him back when this happened. Right. Which, you could have done too. You know, like, you were, you were the father of the illegal custody. I would, I'm not a CIA op. No, I know. I would, I would, I would caution people from, I recommend involving people like that, uh, just to bring in a third person. He doesn't, you can, I guess you can sign over some kind of power of attorney to him, but Jesus.

29:09Uh, yeah, I wouldn't want to go down that route. Well, that, that was what I wanted to do. I told you that I told you the embassy. One guy recommended that I reabduct my daughter. I wanted to do that. You're the father. You know, you have every right, you know, not going to door. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm here. Right. But I'm, but I'm in Poland. You know, I'm in hour into Poland. And I don't speak the language. I don't have any contacts or resources. It was like that, that's what I wanted to do was get her in a car and get her to the, the embassy in Berlin. But I just pictured like trying to drive with a four year old, an hour across an international border seemed crazier to me than what I did. And also took by that and shit. It's a really remembering. You know, she wouldn't be a very, you know, very comfortable, you know, popping in a car with dad, you know, because at that age, even after a month or two, they hardly recognize it. Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I didn't, and I didn't want to involve her. I thought that we could just, we could deal with the adults and they would investigate.

30:10No, but they absolutely did not investigate nor do they even like acknowledge that my allegations could be true because they said that ritual abuse doesn't exist in court. But okay, but now, and now here we are now all these years later, what evidence could you give us right now here today that there was actual ritual abuse, ritual abuse. I think just the, the effects of the ritual abuse, the fact that my wife told me, and I can't prove that my wife told me her family's a cult. But I can prove that I was trying to get help three weeks prior to the abduction and desperate and saying that my wife is threatening to take our daughter and she has her passport and reaching out to multiple people. And, and, and then it, then it happened. So it's, you prove, to prove ritual abuse is, is, is probably impossible because you know, you can't get a camera into where they're doing these, these rituals.

31:13But a woman who says she's going to take a child and then, and then does, and my whole experience, like I've, I've documented all of our communication. And just, just everything that was going on during this time, all of my reaches to, all of my attempts to get help prior to the, to the abduction. Well, let me, I mean, the book has been out since May, 2024. Has anybody reached out to you then since the books come out. Hey, they're the same cult. I know your father. I know this and anything like that. Anybody come forward? Yes, I, I am in contact with several people in Poland who are, who are concerned, who say they have been concerned for years. And they're, they're thankful that I'm doing what I'm doing and one, one person also reached out to me and said that he's known this, he's known my father in law for over 20 years. He used to be, he used to work under him and that he's, he knows he's a horrible guy. And so there's people, there's people that are telling me they know that this is suspicious and fishy or more than that.

32:19And just continuing the conversation with me, supporting me through, through emails. And I'm working with a reporter right now to hopefully get a documentary going. He reached out to me a couple months ago and I met him in Boston and he wants, he wants to make a documentary. And I, and I think my book is a perfect book for a documentary. And that, that's the, because it's about cycles with my wife, like, and me, you know, going from total ignorance and being naive to, to seeing the picture, but it took me years to see that. Because, because not a lot is being said up, but, you know, only in the past few weeks when she's saying, cult, mind control, Stockholm syndrome. But prior to that and the seven years we were together, it was all very cryptic, you know, and it was more just like, who my wife is, the, what, what she, the cheese flips personalities that she has no memory of her childhood.

33:21But she can't say one thing nice about her father, you know, so it, it wasn't until the last moment when I saw the picture. And, yeah, so you spend these almost four years, you know, in this present. Well, what are conditions like an unpollished prison? So I've never been to prison in the United States, but in Polish prison, it was dingy and dirty. Like, we got five minutes of hot water per week. And like, the food was, was hard for me to get used to. It was a lot of just mystery meets, you know, tube meets and candy meets and stuff. Well, that was hard, but there was, there was no violence, like, like you see in stories about American prisons. The people, the people there are very uniform. They're all, they're all, they're all Polish people. And they, they seem to get along. They don't, they don't attack the guards.

34:23And I think a lot of it is, they like what they like the privileges they have and they don't want it to be any worse. But also it's just the culture over there. This is not a lot of that racial gangs, right? That's right. Right. Right. None of it. None of it. I was with, during my time in prison, I was with one Dutch guy who got arrested trying to transport marijuana from Estonia through Poland to back to the Netherlands. So he was in prison with me. And then I was with a Nigerian guy who married a Polish woman. And he tried to import cocaine from Brazil. So, and they put those people in myself because we all spoke English. Pretty much no one else spoke English. So it was a blessing to have them in myself. But everyone else was, yeah, Polish and, yeah. Okay. So now, they're ultimately, was there ever ultimately a custody decision and they're giving you able to get your day in court? So not really. After I was released from, from incarceration in June of 2015, my dad came over and we immediately went in hired an attorney for family court.

35:37Okay. What, what, what caused you to reconcile with your dad that he would come through the, at that point? I mean, I've never, I've been, I've been disappointed with my parents and frustrated with my parents, but I'm not angry with them. And, and like, I've needed them, right? Like, so I've gone from being betrayed to, to look kind of immediately trusting again because I, I just think that they should be supporting me. Like, they should, how they act, they're, they're, they're acting in a way that they don't know me and that's surprising to me. So I keep going back to, all right, if you're willing to help, then yes, I, I need your help. And that's where my dad was at at the point. I never reconciled like I never asked him questions about what he did prior. I just know, okay, if you, if you want to come help me get an attorney, then please come help me.

36:37Like we did, we traveled, we went to Prague together, we stayed in Hamburg with a guy I went to prison with for a couple nights. And, and we went back and hired an attorney and, and my dad was willing to, to pay this attorney and, you know, and step up and help at that point. So I was just like, okay, whatever, I'm still fighting. So if you're going to jump in and help now, I'm not going to complain. Okay, but by then, like you do, it was like nine years old, I'm a guest. Yeah, so 2015 she was born in 2008. So seven years old. Okay, she, but seven years old, very little contact. Has there been any contact at all since she left? No, no contact since I watched her walk down the stairs. And now you got this conviction. So you're walking into court, man. Yeah, that's, that's what the problem is. You're looking for a miracle, man. They would have to be a miracle, you know, it's, it's, I needed, I wanted the court to revisit like why was this church? I was this child taken, right? Like this, this was an abduction that should have never happened.

37:39But the court wasn't willing to do that. They were just, they were going to look at is, Ian safe to visit his daughter now. Right. You know, and I wasn't willing to do that. I wasn't willing to, to have supervised visits in Poland, knowing what was happening. So I, I, I pretty much just shut it down and said, I'm not, I'm not doing that because I know how this is going to go if you're not going to look at the baseline question of why, why was Ian's daughter taken in the first place? Then I'm screwed because you're, you're going off of the facts that led to my daughter's abduction or true that I'm, I'm a violent criminal who was just treated, you know, and punished. And now I'm out trying to get, it's, that's not what happened. So I, and I, and I didn't want to, I didn't want to lie anymore, you know, like to, to get out of Poland, I had to say, you know, I made a mistake. I should, you know, I should have never done that and on all of that. And I just, I wanted to be able to tell the truth and not have to play games to get a supervised visit.

38:43Yeah, that's the thing, the games, but didn't your lawyer tell you listen, because over here they, the expression family court is going to jump through these hoops. And they want to see if you're willing to jump through, and they were taking this hoops, they have nothing to do with your case. You got to go and take a drug test. You know, we're taking this stuff that has nothing to do with what went on. But did you lawyer ever talk to that and say, listen, you just got to jump through these hoops because they want to see how, if you're stable, how serious you are, that kind of stuff. He didn't know, right? And I kind of wish he did. Like it was another situation where if it was happening in the US, I would have had a better feel for it. But because it was Poland and everything they wanted us to do, we had to fly my dad and I flew to Poland. At some point, like the lawyer wasn't saying any of that. He got, he got us to retain him by saying, well, if your wife is even 1% at fault, then you're going to be fine and you're going to get some custody of your kid. And you know, once we gave him the money, then he changed his tune and it was like, oh, well, they want this and this and this to happen before you, you know, you can have a supervised visit.

39:47And yeah, he wasn't the best. Well, that's shocking to hear. Some lawyers took your money. Yeah, all my goodness, man. That's the camp. Yeah, it made us made us capuchino and told us it would be no problem. My wife was 1% to blame. There's actually a scene in that movie with the, about the kid, the haze, the haze with the, with the smuggling, the hashish out of turkey, you know, with the coffee, little, the little Turkish cups there. Yeah. Yeah, well, and we hired the first English speaking lawyer we found. Yeah. It wasn't the best situation, but once that was done, I just focused on publishing my book. Yeah. And then that took some time to do. So there was a verb basically, they gave you some hoops and you just turned it down. Yeah, they wanted me to speak to a court psychiatrist.

40:50And I knew, I knew without meant, right? I knew that I would have to, to lie to this guy, to, to completely lie to this guy in order for them to deem me safe to see my daughter. Now let me ask you a question here, because here in the United States, they'll do that too. And you have to pay that guy $10,000 or $20,000. And then he's kicking it back to the judge. Were you going to have to pay for that doctor too, as well, or were they providing one? I didn't get that far. Yeah, the lawyer sent me an email and said, the court psychiatrist wants to be with you to determine, you know, if you're safe to see your daughter, these are the dates. And I just said, and I thought about it and prayed about it and said, no, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, he's a here, the lawyer actually gets a kickback from that from that psychiatrist. That's crazy. Oh, yeah. I went to, yeah, I talked about on the air sometimes, we had to go to a compensate, I had a client that was declared incompetent to stand trial. And I had to sit through the whole day of what is incompetency hearings in this court.

41:50These poor people standing up, rambling with this crazy things. There was like a hundred of them. This poor judge and everyone was evaluated by the same doctor. One after another 10 grand, 10 grand, 10 grand, 10 grand. I can't, man. It is crazy. It is so corrupt. It is so corrupt. And these psychiatrists are just like lawyers, they can argue whatever point they're paid to argue. And so should it do. And so should it do. Yeah, they'll go with the highest bidder. That's for sure. Yes, they will. Now, what about now, though, because now you're going to be like 20 years old, right? She will be 20 in January. And any, have you heard, the book's been out. Have you heard from her now? I have not, I've not heard from her. She has social media. I have followed her childhood just from Google searches. And knowing, you know, now the schools have pictures on their websites. And because her family in Poland is socially there, their friends with the president of the city.

42:51And there's pictures of my father and law with the president of the city. So, like, I've had an easy time finding pictures. But, no, nothing at all. And other than when I published my book, then there was an attack made against me via email to my place of employment and to the church. My wife and I were going to. And in that email, they said, you know, my daughter hates me. She has bad dreams about me and things like that. And it's just like, that's absolutely ridiculous. And who's the source of that attack? It's signed by my first wife, but it's hard for me to tell exactly, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't seem like her. I think she was told to write these things, but it's just an absolutely ridiculous attack that accuses me of doing things that like I've never, I've never heard of. These were accused against me.

43:51And these are the types of things that I've been accusing them of for 15 years. But yeah, that's, that's it. And I don't reach out to my daughter because I believe that she's in a cult and she's under control in the same way that my wife, her mother went from, you know, loving me. And I have three months of emails from her saying, I love you, you're my world. I hate you, I've always hated you and I'm taking your daughter. And so like my, my first wife doesn't, doesn't or didn't start hating me because it was her choice or because of any issues in between us. It was because she was forced to do that by, by this coercive group. And so I, you know, the same thing is going to be true of my daughter. And the fact that they can say that a 19 year old hates her dad and has bad dreams about him when she was taken before she was four, you know, it's like, parental alienation hasn't caught up in Poland.

44:52But every memory that she has of me has been given to her, you know, like, and I've been fighting for her since the moment she was taken from me. And, and even before that, you know, when when the threat was there. So it just, it doesn't make sense that I am the culprit when I didn't have possession of the child to be the culprit. And my whole thing is she's being abused. I need help since, since day one. Well, to play devil's advocate, wasn't, was she close with her grandfather? She must have, you know, by, and I mean, the beating of a grandfather, that couldn't have gone over well. What did you say it could have gone over well? I could not have gone over well from her perspective. You know, she couldn't be happy about that. My grandpa just got beat up. Well, did it my dad, you know, right? Right. Well, that's, that's the thing is even, even in these situations where the grandfather is a perpetrator in an, an abuser. There's a, there's a trauma bond that's built where they, they still love the abuser. Right. It's still, it's still a grandfather.

45:53Next season, every day, yeah. Right. And you're this ghost from the past. You know, it's coming. You know, yeah. Okay. A couple of days and what about also to know when you had this lawyer, was any attempt me like negotiations? Hey, let's negotiate this. Let's see, when we just want to visit, you don't get anything like that or just went straight to court. It just went straight to court because there was the divorce, which my first wife put through court when I was incarcerated. The divorce was, you know, divorce termination of parental rights and alimony. That I appealed that twice while I was incarcerated. So when I, when my dad and I hired the attorney and went to court, that was like the third time. And I, and I didn't appeal it on the divorce. I appealed it on, you know, the termination of parental rights and the fact that they're pointing the finger at me and there's no, there's no justification for that. There's no evidence that I was ever, ever a problem in our household. You know, and they just took my child and pointed the finger and.

47:02Yeah, here in the States, you got a five year sentence. That's it. Man, they could they could terminate. All that stuff. You know, just five years. Is there that same provision over there in Poland, maybe four years and they kind of knew. I'm not sure. Yeah, that would be something to look into. Now, what about this? Because you mentioned that there was a red herring that they used against you. What was that? Yeah, so that was it was my, my wife told me that was one of the things she told me before the abduction. And she told me this. Like she said, she said cold once, once or twice. She said mind control once or twice. She said red herring like 50 times probably every night one, were in bed. My dad created a red herring your drug psychological and criminal histories are going to be used against you and no one's going to believe you. And I'm just like, what what are you talking about? First of all, no one's like no one's going to believe me. Doesn't make any sense. The abduction hadn't happened yet. And I'm just like you're telling me that there's some kind of plan to paint me as the bad guy using my drug psychological and criminal histories.

48:08And I just told her that she was crazy that the problem was obviously in Poland. They they had just returned from Poland. And you know, obviously the problem is in Poland. And that wouldn't work. And it did work. Right. Like that's that's how they how they got away. It was like just take the child and sit point your finger at Ian and say Ian's a bad guy. And whatever the reason is that they make sense to people, it just keeps the focus on me while they make make away with my child. And that that's what worked on everybody. It worked on my parents. What what did her father do for a living? You mentioned having his friends with the president of the city there. What was his occupation? So prior to the abduction, he he was unemployed a lot. We were sending him money. I I knew that he like worked off and on for the city. That was my understanding prior to the abduction. And then post the abduction. He's he's been the manager for the city basketball team.

49:12And he's he works for the center of culture and tourism. So he he's on stage a lot like emceeing events and things like that. So he works in the local government. And then your ex-wife, does she have an employment? I don't know at this point if she does want the last job when we were married, which she was an executive executive secretary to a Saudi oil company. And she's she's worked in the court in her in her town before when we were engaged. But I don't know. I haven't been able to find her place of employment. And what about the daughter? She must be like in college now or graduated college. What is going on with her? I think she's going to be in college now, not not graduated. But yeah, I have I know what high school she went to. I have pictures of her in high school. And I don't there's no information online that I can find about what she's doing currently.

50:14Yeah, that's heartbreaking. I'm so sorry. Now what about you mentioned your history of drug psychological and criminal history? Did you have any any of that before the marriage? Yeah, and during my marriage too, like I was I have cervical stenosis. So I was taking morphine at the time for my cervical stenosis. But not not at the time of the abduction, but prior to that. And so it was just there wasn't using any drugs when the abduction happened, but it was just they pointed to oh two years ago, he was taking morphine. And I was also a clonipin for panic attacks. I was taking I definitely like use drugs in college and tried things out. I had been arrested, although I had no criminal history and I have no criminal history in the United States. And I had a diagnosis for I had a diagnosis for depression, ADHD and panic disorder.

51:18So it was just like this conglomeration of for for some people and it was enough to say Ian Ian smokes marijuana and they just closed the case on me. It's like 90% of every family quit. Yeah, I was like, you know, you don't wind up there. You know, 1000, you know, I feel okay, man. Well, we've been speaking to Ian Bryson and the book is called I love you like one and the website is I love you like one calm. He's also got a YouTube channel where he mentioned he need into some of our former guest, Joe, sweet. But now, what would you like to leave us with? We're like a couple minutes left. I just I want people to understand that this is still happening, right? Like this story is is is hard to wrap your head around. It's a 600 page book. So like you got to spend some time thinking about it. But I've been fighting for over 15 years and my my daughter is still trapped in this this chorus of group and it's it's not as far away from from the viewer as as they would like to think or as they think and I think that we have to we have to take this seriously.

52:32We have to look at what's under the rug and what what we typically don't look at until we have to because otherwise somebody somebody you love somebody one of your descendants will marry into it as I did. And so, you know, not only for my daughter, but for for everyone, we have to we have to look at what's uncomfortable to look at and and fight for those people who are being victimized. Once again, the book is called I love you like one oh any a letter to my daughter abducted by a cult Ian Avery Bryson, Ian as well I am Ian Avery person 25 reviews. It's got 4 and a half stars. So a lot of people are very popular, both people are reading the book. So you should check it out there. Maybe you get some more information. Then we cover today and check out his story too on YouTube his YouTube channel. I love you like one oh any Mr. Bryson you've been through hell man, you know I don't know what to tell you you know it's I God bless you you know this is no one would want to trade shoes with you.

53:39Thank you sir. Yeah, but you've been through here man. It's just a God bless you man. I really hope I really hope one day can talk to your daughter you know and ask me kind of really communication with her. And it does happen. I know it happens. You know all the time people come to me they want to reunite with their adopted them you know father and their long lost the parents sons and daughters looking for their parents and want to locate them and speak to them. So you can hold out that hope man. And especially too if you're thinking about her she's thinking about you I've always found that too as well. When a long lost loved one if you're thinking about them they're thinking about you too as well. And it always is very rarely is that a negative contact too. So I would encourage you to look forward to. Yes sir thank you very much for having me. No thank you Ian Bryson once again I love you like one dot com thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Good night.