An Australian father who launched an exhausting international search for his missing son is back home with his child and after the pair spent their first Christmas together in three years.
Former NSW deputy fire chief Ken Thompson last year embarked on a search for his son by cycling around Europe.
The odds appeared stacked against him, but Mr Thompson's perserverance paid off in September when six-year-old Andrew was found, leading to an emotional reunion in Amsterdam.
The pair recently arrived back in Sydney, after Mr Thompson, 66, was in January granted permission by a Netherlands court to take Andrew home.
"It was great, Santa was very generous," Mr Thompson said in Sydney on Monday during his first appearance before Australian media since returning.
"I hadn't seen Andrew for three years so there was a backlog of presents at the North Pole that had to be delivered.
"Andrew thought Christmas was a wonderful time. It was snowing, that made it pretty special in Europe."
On Monday, Mr Thompson called for more countries to sign up to the Hague Convention, the multilateral treaty which enabled Andrew to be returned to Australia.
He said it was currently the only legal mechanism enabling the quick return of children taken from one signatory country to another.
Mr Thompson also called on the federal government to strengthen child abduction laws.
"The problem is compounded in Australia because unless parenting matters are before the courts, international parental child abduction is not an offence in this country," he said.
"This situation needs to change and requests have been made ... asking the Australian government to seriously reconsider its position about criminalisation of the heinous act."
The government last year said it was looking into the issue.
The circumstances of Andrew's disappearance cannot be reported because the case is now subject to family court proceedings.
Andrew's mother Melinda Stratton, who was arrested by Dutch authorities not long after he was found, had taken him to Europe in April 2008.
The mother has been fighting moves to extradite her to Australia.
The family had previously lived together in the northern Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill and Mr Thompson had a distinguished 37-year career in the NSW Fire Brigades.
Believing the pair might be in Europe, Mr Thompson got fit, set up an information website, got a bike and a cycling shirt with a picture of Andrew on it and set off.
On the front of his bike he perched Andrew's favourite toy, Bernie Cinders, a fire brigade mascot.
Mr Thompson spent three months cycling 6500km through the UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, among other countries.
The crucial breakthrough came in September when a Dutch teacher spotted Andrew and alerted authorities, leading to an emotional reunion.
"The physical side of it I didn't find too hard to be honest," said Mr Thompson, who requested the child's privacy be respected.
"I trained for it, I was quite comfortable doing anything between 80 and 120 kilometres a day.
"The difficult part was the emotional part ... getting up every day, getting on that bicycle and not knowing if I was heading in the right direction, if I was in the right country, if anyone was even looking at what I was doing.
"That was really difficult. I had no idea."
Mr Thompson's epic search attracted widespread media attention, a factor he says was crucial to finding Andrew.
"I'd now like to ask the national and international media to please respect Andrew's privacy and give him a chance to be a normal, little Aussie boy," he said.
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