The woman smuggled a child in Britain using a fake birth story

In the last summer, a woman was arrested at the Gatwick Airport after coming with a very young girl from Nigeria.

The woman was living with her husband and children in West Yorkshire, and told her GP before leaving Britain for Africa that she was pregnant.

This was not true.

When the woman returned to the child after about a month, she was arrested on suspicion of smuggling.

In this case, the second BBC has chased through the Family Court in recent months, it states that experts say that there is probably a worrying tendency of infants who are probably being illegally brought to the UK – from the so -called “baby factories” in some Nigeria.

The woman, whom we are calling Susan, is Nigerian, but had been living in England with her husband and children since June 2023.

A careful, Susan, with a holiday to live in Britain, claimed that she was pregnant. But scans and blood tests revealed that this was not true. Instead, he revealed that Susan had a tumor, which doctors feared that he could have cancer. But he refused treatment.

Susan insisted that her previous pregnancy was invisible on the scan, saying to her employer, “My children are always hidden”. She also claimed that she was pregnant with her other children for 30 months.

Susan traveled to Nigeria in early June 2024, saying that she wanted to keep her child there, and then approached her local hospital in Britain, saying that she gave birth.

The doctors were worried and contacted the services of the children.

Returning to Britain with the girl – which we are calling Allenor – Susan was stopped and arrested by Sussex Police.

He was granted bail and the Chief Police Force was confirmed that there is no active investigation at this time.

After her arrest, Susan, her husband and Ellenor were given DNA test. Ellenor was taken to careful to raise.

“When the results show that I am the mother of Ellenor, I want him to come back immediately,” Susan said.

But the tests showed that the child had no genetic relations with her husband or her husband. Susan demanded a second test – which gave the same result, and then changed his story.

He said that in 2023, he treated IVF before going to Britain with a donor eggs and sperm, he said, and that is why DNA tests were negative.

Susan provided a letter from a Nigerian Hospital, signed by the medical director, he said that he gave birth there, as well as to support a document from another clinic about IVF treatment to support his claims.

He also provided photos and videos, which he said that he was shown in the labor suit of the Nigerian Hospital. No face is visible in images and one showed a naked woman with a placenta between his legs, a umbilical cord is still associated with it.

The family court in Leeds sent Henrita Kokar for investigation.

Ms. Kokar, which provides expert reports to family courts in such cases, has a social worker’s experience of about 30 years as a social worker. He trained in Britain, and worked in front-line child protection in London before going to Africa.

Ms. Kokar visited the medical center where Susan claimed that she had an IVF. There was no record of Susan, there was treated there – the staff told him that the letter was forged.

Then he visited the place when Susan said that she had given birth. It was a dilapidated, three bedroom flat, with “stained” walls and “dirty” carpets.

Ms. Kokar’s meeting there, “Three young teenage girls were sitting with a uniform of nurses in the reception room”.

She asked Metron to talk and “entered the kitchen, where a teenage girl was eating rice”.

Ms. Kokar then tracked the doctor, who used to write a letter stating that Susan gave birth there. He said, “Yes, someone gave birth”.

Ms. Kokar showed him a picture of Susan, but it was not her, the doctor said.

Ms. Kokar said, “It is common to impress people in this part of the world,” he said Susan “may have bought the child”.

The practice of “baby farming” is well known in West Africa, Ms. Kokar later told the court. He said that at least 200 illegal “baby factories” have been closed by Nigerian officials in the last five years.

Some were included in some young girls, who were kidnapped, raped, and forced to give births again and again.

“Sometimes these girls are released,” Ms. Koker said, “Other times they die during the child’s birth, or are killed and placed on the basis of the organization.”

It is not clear from where the baby Ellenor would have come from – although the doctor told Ms. Kokar that she believed she would have been left voluntarily.

Ms. Kokar was unable to establish who is the real parents of Ellenor.

She gave evidence to the Family Court in Leeds in March this year, as well as Susan, her husband, her employer and a senior maternity specialist.

In the earlier hearing, the judge asked to examine Susan’s phone. Investigators received messages that Susan had saved by someone in his address book as “Mam” [sic] Lagos Baby “.

About four weeks before the date of birth, Susan wrote a text message in which it was read:

“Good afternoon, I have not seen hospital items”

The same day, Mam of Lagos Baby responded to:

“Delivery drug is 3.4 meters

“Hospital Bill 170K.”

Considering those funds to be Nigerian Naira, they will be in the fields of £ 1,700 and £ 85 respectively, the family court judge, recorder William Tyller Casey said.

The local authority reported that the messages were set on “automatic self-destruction mode”-and said that they represent evidence of a deal to buy a child.

Susan tried to convince the messages in the court. The recorder stated that his efforts were “difficult to follow and impossible to accept”.

Records Tyler, sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court, found that Susan had “staged a scene” that he falsely claimed that he was giving birth to Ellenor in Nigeria.

She said that Susan and her husband pushed forward a “original lie” to explain how Ellenor came under her care, and she tried to mislead the authorities with false documents.

They both caused the little girl to “significantly emotional and psychological loss”, he said.

In early July, the BBC attended the final hearing in the case of Ellenor, held from a distance.

In the teams’ meeting, in a small category we could see Susan and her husband, sitting upright, barely walking, focused closely on what the advocates said.

They wanted Ellenor to return to him. His barrister said that his own children were getting rich – he wanted to provide him the same love and care.

Susan’s husband saw Ellenor as “a fundamental part of his family unit”.

Vicky Horsepool, representing the child’s patron, was challenged by a social worker of independent children and family advisory service of the family. She said that the couple remained “dishonest” about the real beginning of Ellenor in life and how she came under her care.

The judge ordered that Baby Ellenor be kept for adoption, and also “announced the non -parentage”. She said that she knew about “pain” that this would cause Susan and her husband.

For the local authority, the barrister told the court that the child is “very systematic” with his foster carer, participating in activities in his community and receiving medical treatment.

When Ellenor is adopted, he will have a new identity and British nationality – but he can never know who his real parents are.

Story of allenore Echoes the case of “Lucy” – Which was brought to Manchester Airport in 2023, claimed to be his father by a person.

Ms. Kokar believes that it is likely that more children from West Africa have been brought illegally in Britain. He told the BBC that he had worked on about a dozen similar cases since the epidemic. In his experience, the child smuggling is common.

“Money is being largely exchanged for children” he said – not only in Africa but “in the global south”.

Since 2021, the UK government has banned adoption from Nigeria, partly due to “evidence of organized child trafficking” within the country.

British authorities have been aware of the problem for many years, and in the last 20 years, there have been several cases in family courts.

Two hearing included in 2011 and 2012 Nigerian couples who had “fertility treatment”, causing “miraculous baby”.

This “treatment” continues, as has recently been exposed Journalist investigative in BBC Africa Eye.

In 2013, the UK High Commission in Lagos required DNA tests under certain circumstances before newborns could be taken from Nigeria to Britain.

An former Oxford Academic in the 12 joints investigated, Prose for immigration crimes prosecuted.

However This process has been closed since then. In 2018, officials were advised that such DNA tests were illegal.

They were told that they could not undergo DNA testing when they were asking for visa or passport in support of an application related to the situation of immigration – and there was a similar case since 2014.

Ms. Kokar said that some clinics provide “package” that involves entering the child’s birth. He said that it would cost anywhere between £ 2,000 and £ 8,000, except for any air fare, he said.

She thinks that more people in Britain should be aware of this activity.

He said that it is difficult, he said – perhaps DNA test of newborns and alleged parents will help.

But he was not sure that the British government could do a lot to stop it, he said, “Issues begin in countries where children are born”.

Petricia Dur, CEO of Trafficking Charity ECPAT, said such cases were particularly “heinous” as they had denied a child of their right to identity.

He said: “Every possible effort should be made to stop these egoistic crimes.”

A government spokesperson said: “For the convenience of entry into the UK, it is illegal to make a false claim of a child to be a parents. People doing so will face the full strength of the law.

“The border force is committed to protecting individuals who cross the border and where concerns are raised, authorities will take action to protect individuals that may be at risk.”

The BBC contacted the Nigerian High Commission for remarks but did not respond.

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