Judge issues gag order as US battle for internet twins begins

Hearings have begun to decide the custody of the 10-month-old twin girls who were adopted over the Internet, then sent back overseas to their birth parents.

Behind closed doors, lawyers for separated parents Aaron and Tranda Wecker and the twins, Kiara and Keyara Wecker, met St Louis Family Court Judge Steven Ohmer.

The judge issued a gag order during the meeting, barring those connected with the case from discussing details with the media.

Ohmer said he was upset that a local TV station aired footage of the twins taken on Saturday at a counselling centre where they were visited by their parents.

‘‘I hesitated to do it, but it was the right thing to do,’’ Ohmer said of the gag order. ‘‘I was disappointed with the visitation with the twins with both parents. We were trying to protect their privacy.’’

Aaron and Tranda Wecker, separated since around the time Kiara and Keyara were born, twice agreed to put the girls up for adoption through a California-based Internet service.

A California couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, paid a £4,000 fee to the service before the adoption was halted; and a Welsh couple, Judith and Alan Kilshaw, paid a £8,000 fee to adopt the twins.

After the adoption was publicised, a court ordered the twins placed in foster care in Wales pending a decision on custody. The Kilshaws’ adoption was voided by an Arkansas court because neither they nor Tranda Wecker had established residency there. The Kilshaws gave up their custody fight in Britain earlier this month.

Judge Ohmer said yesterday’s hearing was procedural, establishing authority for the Missouri Division of Family Services to maintain temporary custody of the girls.

‘‘We basically continued things as they are, with the children in protective custody,’’ Ohmer said.

Before the gag order was issued, Bill Meehan, Tranda Wecker’s lawyer, said the combined custody and divorce case could take up to a year to complete.

‘‘We wanted it to work without it being a circus,’’ Judge Ohmer said. ‘‘We wanted the case to develop without a fishbowl atmosphere of the twins. They have to be given the opportunity to connect with their people so they can have a normal life. It can’t be done in the glare of television cameras and reporters.’’

The Allens initially contested the Kilshaws’ claim to the twins, but bowed out after Richard Allen was accused of molesting two babysitters. Allen has pleaded innocent, but the couple has also lost custody of a two-year-old boy they were seeking to adopt.