A High Court in Leeds has ruled that a Nigerian baby girl smuggled into the UK by a woman falsely claiming to be her mother must be placed for adoption and granted a new identity and British nationality.
The woman, referred to in court as Susan, was arrested by Sussex Police at Gatwick Airport after arriving in the UK in 2024 with a very young child, Eleanor—both names pseudonyms. DNA tests later confirmed that neither Susan nor her husband had any genetic link to the baby.
Susan had been living in West Yorkshire with her family since June 2023. Prior to travelling to Nigeria in early June 2024, she had told her GP that she was pregnant and intended to give birth in her home country. But medical scans and blood tests showed no pregnancy—instead, doctors found a tumour they feared could be cancerous, which she refused to treat.
Despite the findings, Susan insisted she was pregnant, telling her employer, “My babies are always hidden.” She also claimed her previous pregnancies had lasted up to 30 months and were undetectable via ultrasound.
After returning from Nigeria with the baby, Susan informed her local hospital that she had given birth. Her doctors, unconvinced, contacted child services, prompting police to arrest her. Eleanor was taken into foster care, and DNA tests were ordered for Susan, her husband, and the child.
When the tests returned negative, Susan demanded a second round, which confirmed the results. She then changed her story, claiming she had conceived the child via in-vitro fertilisation using a donor egg and sperm before moving to the UK in 2023.
To support her claim, she submitted a letter from a Nigerian hospital allegedly signed by its medical director, affirming she had given birth there. She also provided another document about IVF treatment and supplied photos and videos showing a woman in a hospital’s labour suite. However, the images did not show her face. One particularly graphic image showed a naked woman with a placenta between her legs and an umbilical cord still attached.
The Leeds family court sent social worker Henrietta Coker, with nearly 30 years of experience, to Nigeria to investigate the claims. Her findings were damning.
At the hospital where Susan claimed to have undergone IVF, Coker found no record of her treatment. Staff told her the documents had been forged. Coker then visited the facility where Susan claimed to have given birth.
“She described the site as a shabby, three-bedroom flat with stained walls and dirty carpets,” the court heard.
Coker added:“I was met by three young teenage girls wearing nurses’ uniforms. When I asked to see the matron, I was ushered into the kitchen, where a teenage girl was eating rice.”
She eventually tracked down the doctor who allegedly signed the birth letter. He admitted that “someone had given birth” but, when shown Susan’s photo, shook his head and denied she was the patient.
“Impersonating people is common in this part of the world,” the doctor told her, suggesting that Susan may have “bought the baby.”
Despite her investigation, Coker was unable to determine the identity or origin of baby Eleanor. The doctor said he believed the child had been “voluntarily given up.”
Further revelations emerged in court. Susan’s phone, seized at the judge’s request, contained messages to a contact saved as “Mum oft sic Lagos Baby.” One message from Susan, sent about four weeks before the supposed birth, read: “Good afternoon ma, I have not seen the hospital items.” The same day, the recipient replied: “Delivery drug is 3.4m. Hospital bill 170k.”
The court was told the messages had been set to “automatic self-destruct mode,” which the local authority said was clear evidence of a deal to purchase a baby.
Susan attempted to explain the texts, but the judge described her testimony as “difficult to follow and impossible to accept.”
In a damning judgement, the deputy High Court judge concluded: “Susan and her husband put forward a fundamental lie to explain how Eleanor came to be in their care. They attempted to mislead the authorities with false documents, and in doing so, they caused the child significant emotional and psychological harm.”
Despite the couple’s plea to have Eleanor returned—describing her as “a fundamental part of their family unit”—the judge made a declaration of non-parentage and ordered the child be placed for adoption.
The ruling means Eleanor will be assigned a new identity and granted British nationality.
The case echoes a similar incident in April, when UK Border Force officers intercepted another Nigerian couple attempting to bring in a baby, later identified as Lucy, who was not biologically theirs.
Boluwatife Enome
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