Court rules pedophile dad can keep surrogate girl
Print Edition
THE father of a Down’s syndrome baby at the center of a surrogacy scandal did not abandon him in Thailand and can keep his twin sister despite being a convicted pedophile, a court ruled yesterday.
Australian couple David Farnell and Li Wenyu sparked international furore in 2014 when they were accused of leaving baby Gammy in Thailand and returning home with his healthy twin sister Pipah.
Thai surrogate Pattaramon Chanbua, who gave birth to the siblings, tried to get Pipah back the following year after learning Farnell was a convicted child sex offender.
But the Family Court of Western Australia ruled that Pipah could continue to live with the Farnells in the western city of Bunbury.
“I have decided Pipah should not be removed from the only family she has ever known, in order to be placed with people who’d be total strangers to her,” Chief Judge Stephen Thackray wrote in a 272-page decision.
Thackray said he did not think the child was at risk from her biological father, and pointed to the “strong attachments that Pipah has now formed with the Farnells.”
“I have accepted the expert evidence that while there is a low risk of harm if Pipah stays in that home, there is a high risk of harm if she were removed.”
The conditions attached to the 2-year-old’s stay included Farnell not being left alone with Pipah and the couple always keeping Western Australia’s Department for Child Protection informed of their address.
The judge also found that Gammy, who he said appeared to be “thriving” in his Thai home, was not abandoned by the Farnells, but rather Pattaramon wanted to keep him.
The Thai claimed in 2014 the Farnells at first sought an abortion and then walked away when they learnt of his condition.
Pattaramon said yesterday she did not want to comment “because I don’t know the details (of the court decision).”
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