It’s a tale as old as time. Woman lies to her former lover about getting an abortion, gives birth instead, gifts the child to her gay friend, and then conspires with the new adoptive father to create a fake Facebook profile for a fictional surrogate mother who is also a lesbian lawyer.
Who hasn’t been there?
The Telegraph reports that a 29-year-old mother in Perth, Scotland has been sentenced to jail for three years after lying to her former lover about receiving an abortion and then secretly giving away the child to her gay friend.
The 35-year-old gay man from Glasgow, who was raising the child, was also sentenced for three years.
The birth father had originally been told that the gay friend’s child was from a surrogate mother. The birth mother and adoptive father created a fake Facebook persona, a lesbian lawyer named Clare Green, to keep up the surrogate ruse.
This bizarre, elaborate scheme continued for three years before the birth father discovered the truth—he caught on after being told that the child looked just like him.
The birth mother and friend had used a signed birth certificate to claim to be the rightful parents—they also tricked Perth Registrar Alison Breingan into believing they were the birth parents, in addition to workers at the National Health Service and the Perth Royal Infirmary.
After their scheme was discovered, DNA testing disproved their paternity claims. Initially, social workers took the child into protective custody after learning the gay friend’s father was a convicted pedophile. Because this story isn’t terrible enough. Custody of the child has now been award to the birth father.
The BBC reports that the child’s father said before the sentencing was complete: “I am over the moon. I have finally got justice for my little girl. I don’t think any sentence is high enough to justify what they have done to her.”