Earlier this year, a newborn baby found in Newham, east London, has been identified as the third child abandoned by the same parents, according to a BBC report.
DNA tests presented to the East London Family Court confirmed that “Baby Elsa” is the sibling of two other abandoned babies discovered in 2017 and 2019.
Despite ongoing appeals by the Metropolitan Police, the parents remain unidentified.
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The court granted special permission to the BBC and PA Media to report the sibling link, revealing that the children are black. Judge Carol Atkinson emphasized the significant public interest in this case, noting the rarity of baby abandonment in modern Britain.
An expert testified that the genetic evidence strongly supports that Baby Elsa is a full sibling of the previously abandoned boy and girl.
The older children have since been adopted, while Baby Elsa remains in foster care. She was found by a dog walker in January during the coldest night of the year, wrapped in a towel inside a bag. Despite the sub-zero temperatures, Elsa was responsive and crying when discovered.
The other two babies, named Harry and Roman, were also found abandoned in the same area of London, wrapped in blankets and one inside a bag.
Family Court documents revealed that Baby Elsa still had her umbilical cord attached, and doctors estimated she was born only an hour before being found. While the local authority and England’s Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) opposed reporting the sibling link, Judge Atkinson supported it, citing the unusual nature of such cases and the importance of public awareness.
The Family Court plans for the siblings to be informed of their relationship and maintain some form of contact as they grow up. The Met Police stated it was the court’s decision to report the sibling link but expressed concerns about inadvertently encouraging mothers in distress to abandon babies in public spaces.
This case is part of a transparency pilot involving nearly half of the family courts in England and Wales, allowing greater media access to report such cases. The BBC and PA Media argued that publicizing the sibling relationship could help locate the children’s parents and refocus attention on the mother.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicated that very few babies are recorded as abandoned at birth in England and Wales. The last published figures, which covered up to 2015, showed no babies registered as abandoned for the previous three years, with only one case in 2011. However, academic researchers estimate about 16 babies are abandoned annually, based on analysis from 1998-2005.
Recent cases include a baby abandoned in Hackney, east London, in 2020 and another in Birmingham in 2021, with both mothers eventually traced several months later.
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