Spanish police have identified the prime suspect in the case of a British boy abducted in Spain, who is feared to have been taken out of the country and into Russia.
The three-year-old, named as Oliver Pugh, disappeared from Marbella on 4 July 2025. Authorities confirmed they are treating the case as a parental abduction.
According to UK media reports, Oliver’s British father only reported him missing to police in Marbella on 7 August 2025, more than a month after the boy was last seen.
Officers say they now believe Oliver’s Russian mother took him against a court order that banned her from removing him from Spain.
Police confirm the details
In an appeal, Spain’s Ministry of Interior described Oliver as having grey eyes, blonde hair, being 85cm tall and weighing 15kg. The notice also included his date of birth – 3 November 2021.
“We are treating this as a parental abduction. We believe the mother has left Spain and has taken the boy to her homeland, which is Russia,” a police spokesman said.
Authorities confirmed that both Oliver and his father are British citizens, while the mother is Russian. Her identity has not been made public.
What is “parental abduction”?
Parental abduction happens when one parent takes a child away without permission from the other parent or in violation of a legal custody order.
In this case, sources say a Spanish court had already banned Oliver’s mother from taking him out of the country.
If she has travelled to Russia, the case becomes more complicated because Russia does not have formal extradition treaties with many Western countries, including Spain and the UK.
This means Spanish authorities cannot simply demand her return through normal legal channels.
Whether an international arrest warrant will be issued depends on a judge’s decision. Such a warrant would allow Spanish authorities to ask other countries to detain the mother if she is found abroad.
But in this context, the process is much more difficult if the person is in a country like Russia that does not usually cooperate in these matters.
A growing search effort
The Spanish National Police are leading the investigation with help from the country’s National Missing Persons Centre, which shared Oliver’s photo and details nationwide.
A well-placed source in Marbella told reporters:
“The mum and dad are separated and there was a court order preventing the mother from taking this boy out of Spain. They are all based here on the Costa del Sol.”
It is still unclear what Oliver’s exact custody arrangements were, or whether he was born in the UK, Spain, or another country.
For now, investigators are focusing on tracking Oliver’s mother’s movements after 4 July 2025 and confirming whether she did indeed leave Spain.
The Ministry of Interior confirmed:
“The search for Oliver is a Spanish National Police investigation.”
