A couple who ran away to Ireland after social workers threatened to take their baby from them at birth have had the newborn snatched after all.
17 year old Kerry Robertson who has mild learning difficulties, and her partner Mark McDougall, who is 25, went on the run after British social services said she wasn't clever enough to bring up a child!
But just four days after baby Ben, 7lb 3oz, was born, Irish social workers turned up at the maternity ward and forced the new mum and dad to hand him over. In November the couple were told that her 'disability' meant their baby would be taken away at birth so with Kerry 29 weeks pregnant, they fled their house in the middle of the night and travelled to Ireland.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Miss Robertson said: 'When the Irish social workers said I had to give the baby to them, I felt sick. I didn't want to hand him over and I started crying because I couldn't believe what they were saying. I thought I had misunderstood. I had just been breastfeeding him.'
Mr McDougall said: 'Kerry let out a dreadful cry when she realised what was happening ' it was terrible. She is just in pieces. We believed that the Irish had more traditional values than social workers in the UK. We found a two-bedroom cottage in a beautiful village in Waterford overlooking the sea.'
An anonymous benefactor has been funding the couple after they left home with just '200, and has even paid for the house. Mr McDougall is an artist and has also been selling pictures while friends and family have donated clothes, baby gear and further money.
The social workers, who turned up at the hospital said that Fife had put him on the at-risk register and he was subject to a care order. It is reported that the two midwives who had been caring for Kerry were so distressed that they fled the room.
Ben is currently being cared for by foster parents although the couple have been allowed to see their son for two hours every other day.
Miss Robertson said to the Daily Mail: 'Holding him made me upset all over again. I've told the social workers I don't want him to have bottled milk or a dummy. I feel breastfeeding is so important and at least then he is still having some of me.'
LibDem MP John Hemming, who has been supporting the couple, said: 'There is no evidence that Mark and Kerry cannot be good parents and I just hope that the Irish authorities can resolve this as quickly as possible.'
Stephen Moore, executive director of social work at Fife Council, said: 'I can confirm that although the Robertson family are not presently within Fife, we are committed to working closely with professional colleagues elsewhere to ensure safety and welfare of the child and indeed the whole family as this is of paramount concern to us.'
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