London parents abandon third baby in a row: report
A newborn baby authorities found in London was reportedly the third one whom the same parents had abandoned.
BBC, citing DNA test results from the East London Family Court, reported that "Baby Elsa" is the sibling of two babies found in "very similar circumstances" in 2017 and 2019.
An expert also told BBC that there's an "extremely strong scientific support" that Baby Elsa was a "full sibling" of the two other babies, Harry and Roman.
The parents haven't been identified, and the children were reportedly black.
Elsa remains in foster care, while Harry and Roman have been adopted.
Elsa was wrapped in a towel inside a bag when a dog-walker found her last January in sub-zero temperatures, BBC reported.
Court documents showed that though she was "extremely cold" when found, she was crying and responsive.
She still had her umbilical cord, and doctors believe she was found only an hour after her birth.
Elsa has since been doing well, court documents said.
The family court said the children, whose names have now been changed, will know they're full siblings. There are also plans for them to have some form of contact as they grow up.
Local authorities and England's Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, however, do not support the reporting of the sibling link.
The Met Police, though noting it was up to the court to determine whether the sibling link should be reported, said it did not wish to “inadvertently promote or encourage struggling mothers to abandon unwanted babies in public spaces," BBC reported.
But according to Judge Carol Atkinson, babies are "very rarely abandoned" in modern Britain, and the story was of "great public interest."
“Abandonment of a baby in this country is a very, very unusual event,” Atkinson is quoted as saying.
She said the babies being full siblings are "of enormous interest in our current society."
If she'd refused the case's reporting, Atkinson said it would affect the “public consciousness” of such matters and restrict open justice in such cases.
Its reporting would also likely assist authorities in locating the children's parents—and that highlighting the relationship would put the focus back on the children’s mother, she added.