An unnamed woman received a five year prison sentence after forcing her adopted teenage daughter to become pregnant on her behalf.
The woman, who had undergone voluntary sterilisation, had already adopted three children as babies from abroad, the third after her divorce the Guardian reports. When her application for a fourth child was turned down, the “domineering” woman intimidated one of her daughters, then aged 14, into attempting to provide a child by becoming pregnant using donor sperm purchased over the internet.
The girl said he was “pretty shocked” when the mother asked her to become pregnant, but had thought “if I do this … maybe she will love me more”.
The scheme only came to light when the teenager eventually fell pregnant at the age of 16, following an earlier miscarriage. Midwives reported the “pushy and insensitive mother “ to child protection services when she attempted to remove her daughter’s baby and prevent breastfeeding.
In a High Court judgement on welfare issues related to the case, Mr Justice Peter Jackson said he had “an abiding sense of disbelief that a parent could behave in such a wicked and selfish way towards a vulnerable child”.
The woman admitted cruelty.
The local Child Protection Board described the case as “truly terrible” and said they had undertaken a formal serious case review, which would be published “in the coming weeks”.
