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Elsa, a baby who was found earlier this year in Newham, east London, is the third newborn abandoned by the same parents in a period of 7 years.
DNA evidence presented to East London Family Court established that “little Elsa” is the sister of two babies, a boy and a girl, found in very similar circumstances in 2017 and 2019.
Despite calls from the Metropolitan Police, his parents have not been identified yet.
The BBC and PA Media received special permission from the court to publicize the bond between the brothers, and to report that they are of African descent.
The judge Carol Atkinson He said the story is of “great public interest” as babies are rarely abandoned in the UK today.
An expert told the court that, in his opinion, the genetic findings provide extremely strong scientific support for the thesis that baby Elsa is father and mother sister of the other two babies.
The older children were adopted and Elsa is still in foster care.
Elsa was found by a dog walker in January, in sub-zero temperatures – on the coldest night of the year – wrapped in a towel in a bag.
The other babies – called Harry and Roman– had also been abandoned shortly after birth in the same area of London.
they had wrapped in blankets. One of them was also inside a bag.
According to Family Court documents, Elsa I still had the umbilical cord and the doctors calculated that he had been born just an hour before.
Although she was very cold when they found her, she cried and responded. The court has since found that she is well.
The children – whose names have been changed – will know that they are brothers and sisters, and it is expected that they will maintain some type of contact when they grow up.
Local authorities and the Family Court Advice and Support Service for England (Cafcass), which advises courts on the best interests of children, they did not support that the link between the brothers be publicly reported.
The Metropolitan Police said it was up to the court to determine whether the link between the children should be made public, but told the court they did not want to “indirectly promote or encourage distressed mothers to abandon unwanted babies in public spaces”.
East London Family Court takes part in a transparency pilot project, which has expanded to cover almost half of the family courts in England and Wales. This makes it easier for the BBC and other journalists can report on the cases.
The BBC and PA Average They argued in court that it was a matter of public interest that the three children had been abandoned at birth by the same parents.
Carol Atkinson, the senior judge at East London Family Court, agreed.
“The abandonment of a baby in this country is an event very, very unusual”he said, adding that, for that reason, there was a considerable public interest in these types of cases.
He said that the fact that the three babies were brothers and sisters was, for the same reason, “of enormous interest” in “our current society.”
He also said that, if he refused to report on the case, it would affect the “public conscience” on these issues, and would restrict open justice in these cases.
The BBC and PA They said further reporting would likely help authorities locate the children’s parents, and that highlighting the relationship between them would refocus attention on the children’s mother.
Very few babies are recorded as abandoned at birth in England and Wales. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) only published data up to 2015, and this showed that no babies had been recorded as abandoned in the previous three years. Only one was registered as such in 2011.
However, academic researchers estimate that the number is higher, about 16 a yearin an analysis that covers the period 1998-2005.
The press reported on an abandoned baby in Hackney, east London, in 2020, and another in Birmingham in 2021. Their mothers were identified several months later.
BBC World
