Rachael Martin, aged 23, and Lisa Martin, aged 21, said Stephen Fagan, who changed all their identities after seizing the girls in 1979, was a good father and that they would stand by him.

"The media has portrayed him as everything from a gold-digging playboy to a thief," Rachael Martin said. "I'm here to tell you that is not true." Her sister Lisa said Fagan "was, and is, the best mother, father and friend anyone could ask for". Neither woman mentioned their mother, Barbara Kurth, who was awarded custody of her daughters when her marriage to Fagan ended in divorce in 1978. Fagan had told his daughters their mother died in a car crash.

The case hit the headlines last week when Fagan, who for the past 20 years has led a glamorous life as William Martin, was charged with kidnapping. Fagan had worked as a karateinstructor and as a lawyer in Massachusetts. He reinvented himself as Dr William Martin, a smooth-talking Florida socialite whose millionaire lifestyle in Palm Beach was a source of mystery to his friends because he had no apparent source of income. He is currently married to his fourth wife, Harriet, an estate agent.

At the time of his arrest, Fagan said he had rescued his daughters, then aged five and two, from an alcoholic mother. Barbara Kurth, who now works as a cellular biologist at the University of Virginia, denies she was an alcoholic. Neighbours have confirmed that William Martin was a dedicated father, who doted on his daughters and supported them attentively in their education and their careers.

"I firmly believe what happened with my sister and I 19 years ago happened for a reason," Lisa Martin said. "We'd like to say `Daddy, we love you'."

-- The Guardian News Service