A couple have been ordered by a judge to hand the newborn baby they ‘adopted’ a year ago back to his family.
According to court reports, the unidentified couple took the child into their care on the day he was born, under an ‘early permanency placement agreement’. The legal agreement is taken to mean that the legal process of adoption is expected to be a formality.
While the baby’s parents initially expressed no wish to raise the child themselves, just weeks after the birth the child’s father suggested that the boy be brought up by his grandparents.
After a four month wait, the child’s grandparents were finally given social workers’ approval to care for him, and a local authority organised for the child to be given back to his biological relatives.
Naturally, the couple who adopted the child were left devastated and took legal action against the decision, claiming that they were ‘the only parents he has ever known’.
Ordering the couple to return the child to his family, Sir James Munby insisted that his ties to his natural family can be broken only in exceptional circumstances.
“Without wishing to belittle or diminish all they have done for the boy, this is a case where there has been an unexceptional period of time caring for an unexceptional child in an unexceptional case,” said Sir Munby.
