Couple in bid to get children back from social services

AN ENGLISH couple who fled to Wexford to have their fourth child in 2006 are to launch a legal action to get their first three children back.Mark and Nicky Webster, from Norfolk, had three of their children forcibly adopted in the shadow of abuse allegations and will launch legal action in the next few days to clear their names and to potentially get their children back. They,

AN ENGLISH couple who fled to Wexford to have their fourth child in 2006 are to launch a legal action to get their first three children back.

Mark and Nicky Webster, from Norfolk, had three of their children forcibly adopted in the shadow of abuse allegations and will launch legal action in the next few days to clear their names and to potentially get their children back. They, and their supporters, have long claimed the allegations, dating back to 2004, are false.

The couple fled to Wexford in May 2006, where Nicky gave birth to Brandon at Wexford General Hospital. They fled the U.K. in an attempt to stop Norfolk Social Services from taking him into care the moment he was born.

Last year the Websters won a battle to keep Brandon, who is aged 21 months.

The family, who returned to Wexford on holiday last year, are now fighting to get back their other three children, known only as A, B and C to protect their identities, who remain with other families after their adoption orders were finalised in 2005.

However, the Websters' case appeared to change dramatically last July when a court heard that an expert witness had changed his mind about how one of their three children had suffered broken bones. An initial assessment that it was because of force had been changed to an acceptance that vitamin deficiency fuelled by a poor diet could have been to blame.

In a unrelated recent case another English woman fled to Wexford to have her child. Emily Burgess (32), from the Great Yarmouth area of England, gave birth to her sixth child at Wexford General Hospital, but the healthy baby boy was taken away from her by the Gardaí in Wexford.