Hackney victim of baby scam wins legal battle to keep the child
A woman tricked by Nigerian conmen into believing she had given birth in a fertility treatment scam has won a legal battle against Hackney Council in her attempt to adopt the baby.
The woman and her partner from Hackney were so desperate to have a baby she travelled to Nigeria in 2010 to undergo fertility treatment after failing to conceive in the UK using IVF.
When she returned to Britain in 2011 her GP discovered the couple were not the child’s biological parents and alerted Hackney Council Social Services, who took the girl into care.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, insisted she had been duped by “unscrupulous” conmen into believing that the child was hers – despite their being no pregnancy or birth.
She said she had been drugged while undergoing a process which she thought was a genuine birth and believed the child was hers.
You may also want to watch:
The couple have launched a legal bid to regain custody of the one-year girl and a judge ruled at the Appeal Court last week that the woman had been duped in a “baby exchange” scam in the African country.
In December last year, as part ongoing proceedings a High Court, a judge ruled she had been the innocent victim of Nigerian fraudsters.
Most Read
- 1 Police appeal for help to trace wanted Dalston man
- 2 Jailed: 'Dangerous' Hackney predator found with 1,600 indecent child images
- 3 Hackney road closures 'will cost lives', says volunteer ambulance service
- 4 Joint Covid patrols launched to ensure lockdown rules are followed
- 5 'Common sense' prevails as Stamford Hill testing centre moved out of estate
- 6 Covid-safe shared workspaces in Hackney on flexibility without formalities
- 7 Lockdown: Thirteen card players busted by police in Hackney social club
- 8 Hackney author speaks out against stop and search
- 9 Stoke Newington School looks to raise £60K for student laptops
- 10 Homerton High Street attack: Man in his 50s stabbed in the back
But last week the council’s lawyers challenged the finding, arguing that no judge could reasonably believe the woman was unaware that she had not been pregnant, gone into labour and given birth to the child.
However Lord Justice McFarlane rejected the council’s appeal upholding Mr Justice Coleridge’s decision, which he said was one he was “entitled” to reach on the evidence.
He said the judge had been “fully alive” to the woman’s extraordinary claims.
The case has now been referred to the family Division of the High Court where a decision will be taken on whether the couple can bring up the child.