Mother who sold baby on internet jailed for two years

A MOTHER who sold her unborn baby over the internet to two childless couples was yesterday jailed for two years.

Moira Greenslade, 33, from west Yorkshire, England, dishonestly made £2,500 (€3,700) from two couples she contacted through a surrogacy website after she offered to give up her child.

Sentencing Greenslade at Leeds Crown Court, Mr Justice Henriques described it as a “cynical and callous fraud”.

He added: “It is the duty of the court to protect vulnerable sectors of the community from dishonest predators.

“Those couples who desperately seek a child are frequently prepared to go to extraordinary ends to meet their ambitions. Their hopes and prayers render them vulnerable to opportunists and fraudsters such as yourself.”

The court heard Greenslade entered into surrogacy agreements with three different couples.

In February last year, she made a £9,000 (€13,400) agreement with Scottish couple Mark and Michelle Johnson, who had suffered 13 miscarriages and eight failed IVF attempts.

Mrs Johnson accompanied Greenslade for both her 12- and 20-week scans. Greenslade also encouraged Mrs Johnson to go shopping for baby clothes. At home she had a nursery prepared.

Peter and Sharon Robinson-Hudson, from Wrexham, North Wales, signed a similar surrogacy agreement, worth £5,000 (€7,450), in August last year when Greenslade was already pregnant.

The £8,000 (€11,920) agreement with Janet and Andy Rashley of Southampton, was also made in August after Greenslade placed an advert on the Surromomsonline website offering the baby for adoption.

At the end of November, just two weeks before the baby was born, Greenslade called off the agreements with the Johnsons and the Robinson-Hudsons and later said to police that she genuinely intended to hand the baby over to the Rashleys.

This couple accompanied her to the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton on December 11 where she gave birth to a baby girl and was subsequently arrested. The newborn child was taken into care.

Greenslade had received a total of £6,000 (€9,000) from the three couples, of which £2,500 (€3,700) was obtained by deception, that she spent on herself and her six-year-old son.

The court heard she had also made contact with two other couples but it had been impossible to trace them.