Gammy's Parents: Surrogate Wouldn't Let Us Take Him

Dad says he's changed after pedophilia convictions
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 10, 2014 3:59 PM CDT
Gammy's Parents: Surrogate Wouldn't Let Us Take Him
Pattaramon Chanbua, 21, poses with Gammy at a hospital in Chonburi province, southeastern Thailand, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014.   (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

With their case making international headlines, the Australian parents of baby Gammy are telling their story. Speaking to Australia's 9News, David Farnell said he and his wife, Wendy, "wanted" to take Gammy home with them, Reuters reports—but his surrogate mother wouldn't let them. Surrogate Pattaramon Chanbua "said if we tried to take our little boy, she's going to get the police and she's going to come and take our little girl," Farnell said, via Sky News, referring to Gammy's twin sister.

Earlier, the BBC notes, the Farnells told reporters they hadn't known about Gammy at all. In other moments from the interview:

  • David Farnell also says the couple would likely have sought to terminate the pregnancy if they'd known earlier that Gammy had Down Syndrome, Sky News reports. "It was late into the pregnancy that we learned the boy had Down's," Farnell says, noting that "no parent wants a son with a disability."
  • Farnell acknowledged his convictions for child sex abuse; 9News notes that he was convicted of abusing four girls, ages five to 10, over a decade. He spent three years in jail. "I’ve been convicted of child sex offenses and I hang my head in shame," he said. "Everybody hates sex offenders," he noted, per Sky. "That's why I've tried so hard and want to be a good father to my children, so people can see that I'm a good person now because I did this bad thing a long time ago."
(More Australia stories.)

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