Britain Returns Internet Twins to U.S.

L O N D O N, April 19, 2001 -- Twin baby girls at the center of atrans-Atlantic Internet adoption scandal have been returned totheir native Missouri, British officials said today.

Nine-month-old sisters Kimberley and Beverley were sold foradoption twice over the Internet by their natural mother —first to an American couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, and thento Welsh couple Alan and Judith Kilshaw who fled with them toBritain in January.

But last week a British judge ruled the children must bereturned to Missouri, where they were born.

"Social workers last night safely placed the twins withfoster parents [in the United States], on a confidential basis,pending a decision on their future by the Missouri court," aspokesman for Flintshire County Council, which had been caringfor the children, said today.

Trans-Atlantic Chase

The case sparked international headlines and outrage inJanuary when the Kilshaws fled the United States with thetwins, with the Allens hot on their heels.

The babies were seized by British social services from anorth Wales hotel where the Kilshaws had taken refuge. Although the Kilshaws, who paid $14,000 for the children,and the Allens have relinquished their claim, the court battleover their future is far from over.

Their natural parents, Tranda and Aaron Wecker, havelaunched separate cases seeking custody of the children.

The Kilshaws were not immediately available for comment butlast week said they accepted the court's decision to returnthem to the United States. "Throughout the proceedings they have been only too awareof the impact this has had on both the twins and their ownchildren, " their lawyer Michael Charles said in a statement.

Initially the Kilshaws courted media attention in a bid toback their custody claim, even confronting the Allensface-to-face on The Oprah Winfrey Show. But as more of theirpersonal details appeared across newspaper headlines, theyclaimed they had been the victims of a smear campaign.