Anette Sørensen of Denmark says American parents ‘live in fear’, 20 years after case that shocked people in US and Denmark – for opposite reasons

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A Danish mother whose 1997 arrest for leaving her baby outside a New York restaurant sparked an international debate about parenting styles – and led to her arrest and strip-search and the temporary loss of her daughter – says she still feels she was unjustly vilified.

“[My] case that happened 20 years ago is even more relevant today,” Anette Sørensen told the New York Post for a story published on Saturday.

American parents “live in fear”, she said, adding that she still wanted “to show it’s possible to live another way”.

On a chilly May evening in 1997, Sørensen, then an actor in her 30s, parked her 14-month-old daughter in a stroller outside a barbecue restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village while she and the baby’s father, a New York-based playwright, had margaritas inside.

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Sørensen said she repeatedly checked on the blanket-covered baby during the hour they were at the restaurant before a patron summoned police.

The parents were arrested on child-endangerment charges and child welfare authorities briefly took charge of the girl.

“I don’t think there’s any greater punishment than to have your child taken away from you,” Sørensen told the Post.

The episode sparked outrage in New York, where residents were astounded at the idea of parents depositing a child alone on a sidewalk. In Denmark, people were equally stunned by the notion of being arrested for leaving a child unattended for a spell while shopping or dining.

The charges were dropped but Sørensen filed a $20m false-arrest lawsuit against the city. In 1999, a jury awarded her $66,000, rejecting many of her claims but agreeing that she should not have been strip-searched, among other findings.

Sørensen, who now lives in Hamburg, is trying to raise money online for an English translation of a novel she wrote based on her 1997 experience.

“I always had a big longing for an apology,” she says in a fundraising video that also features her now 21-year-old daughter. “I probably never will get this apology.”