Baby girl removed from 'homophobic' mother and given to gay couple after surrogacy deal turns sour

A High Court Judge has ruled that a baby girl conceived through surrogacy should be placed with her father and his partner after her biological mother was deemed “homophobic”.

Ms Justice Alison Russell ruled the mother had lied over the informal arrangement of the child, now 15 months old, and had always intended to keep the girl for herself.

The row developed after an apparently informal agreement between the surrogate mother and the gay father and his partner broke down shortly before the child’s birth.

Ruling, Ms Justice Russell noted that the case typified the problems associated with such informal arrangements over surrogacy and how easily these can break down.

The mother and father, both originally from Romania, met when they were teenagers.

They agreed to the surrogacy on the provision that although the woman, who was artificially inseminated, would play a role in her daughter’s life, the 43-year-old father and his 38-year-old partner would be the main careers.

However, the deal soured in January 2014 when the woman gave birth without telling the father and then proceeded to breastfeed and co-sleep with the child in an attempt to demonstrate her closeness to the baby.

Ms Justice Russell said the mother had used “stereotypical images and descriptions of gay men” and had “insinuated that gay men in same-sex relationships behave in a sexually disinhibited manner”.

The woman had also implied that the gay couple were “sexually disloyal to each other,” the Justice said, noting that she found the two men to be “clearly devoted” to one another.

The mother, whose manner in court was deemed assertive and aggressive, had also sought to portray herself on social media as the “victim,” whose rights as a mother had been “trampled over and abused”.

But, she had “deliberately misled the father and his partner about her intention or changed her mind as the pregnancy progressed,” Ms Justice Russell added.