Court battle resumes over internet twins

The High Court battle to determine the future of twin sisters allegedly sold twice over the internet is due to resume.

Alan and Judith Kilshaw, of Buckley, north Wales, are fighting for custody of babies Belinda and Kimberley, now nearly nine months old.

But Flintshire Social Services officials, who seized the twins in January this year, are asking that they be made wards of court.

The hearing at Birmingham's Priory Courts Complex before Mr Justice Kirkwood is scheduled to last up to three days and will take place behind closed doors.

Both Mr Kilshaw and Mrs Kilshaw, who claim they paid an American baby broker £8,200 to adopt the girls, are expected to attend the hearing.

Belinda and Kimberley, now the subject of a transatlantic custody battle involving their natural mother and father, are currently being cared for by foster parents.

the hearing coincides with the first full screening in Britain of face-to-face showdown between the Kilshaws and their Californian counterparts, Richard and Vickie Allen, who claimed they were outbid for the girls.

Channel 5 says it has decided to broadcast The Oprah Winfrey Show, first shown in the US in February, "in the interests of the public" and because it illustrated the dangers of adopting babies on the web.

The British couple flew to Chicago to film the programme in January but shortly after the show finished they were served with a writ from the Allens, alleging they were the legal parents of the babies.

The US couple have since backed out of the row after it emerged Mr Allen was arrested on suspicion of molesting two teenage girls.