Surrogate dad convicted of over 20 child sex offences

The Australian father at the centre of an international surrogacy controversy has been convicted of more than 20 child sex offences, court documents reveal.

It had been reported that David John Farnell, 56, from Western Australia, had been a convicted sex offender, but new court documents have revealed the extent of the abuse he carried out — and is likely to raise pressure on the Australian government to intervene in the case.

Farnell and his wife Wendy are at the centre of a scandal that left a Thai mother caring for a baby with Down’s syndrome, while the couple left the country with the child’s healthy twin.