image source, Getty Images
- the author, Sanchia Berg
- role, BBC news
A newborn baby found earlier this year in Newham, east London, is the third child abandoned by the same parents, the BBC can report.
DNA tests presented at East London Family Court proved that “Baby Elsa” is the sibling of two babies, a boy and a girl, found in very similar circumstances in 2017 and 2019.
Despite appeals from the Metropolitan Police, their parents have not been identified.
The BBC and PA Media were given special permission by the court to report the brothers’ relationship – and that the children are black.
Judge Carol Atkinson said the story was of “huge public interest” as babies are rarely abandoned in modern Britain.
An expert told the court that, in his view, the genetic findings provided extremely strong scientific support for the view that Baby Elsa was “a full sister” to the other two babies.
The older children are adopted and Baby Elsa remains in foster care.
She was found by a dog walker in January in sub-zero temperatures – the coldest night of the year – wrapped in a towel inside a bag.
The other babies – named Harry and Roman – were also abandoned after birth in the same area of London.
They were wrapped in blankets. One was also inside a bag.
Family Court documents said Baby Elsa still had her umbilical cord attached and doctors estimate she was born just an hour ago.
Although extremely cold when found, Elsa was described as crying and responsive. The court has since heard that she is fine.
The Family Court heard the children – whose names have now been changed – will all know they are full siblings and there are plans for them to have some form of contact as they grow up.
Sibling reporting was not supported by the local authority and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service in England (Cafcass), which advises courts on the best interests of children.
The Met Police said it was for the court to determine whether the relationship between the children should be reported, but they told the court they did not want to “unwittingly promote or encourage struggling mothers to abandon unwanted babies in public spaces”.
East London Family Court is taking part in a transparency pilot which has been extended to cover almost half of family courts in England and Wales. This makes it easier for the BBC and other journalists to report cases.
The BBC and PA Media 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 most senior judge at the East London Family Court, agreed.
“The abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very unusual event,” she said, adding that there has been considerable public interest in such cases for that reason.
She said the fact that the three babies were full siblings was, for the same reason, “of great interest” in “our current society”.
She said that if she refused to report, it would affect “public awareness” of these cases and would limit open justice in such cases.
The BBC and PA said further reporting was likely to help authorities find the children’s parents and that highlighting the relationship would shift the focus back to the children’s mother.
Very few babies are registered as abandoned at birth in England and Wales. The ONS only published data up to 2015, which showed that no babies had been registered as abandoned for the previous three years, with just one registered as abandoned in 2011.
The press reported on an abandoned baby in Hackney, east London, in 2020 – and another in Birmingham in 2021. Their mothers were eventually tracked down a few months later.