Wealthy Australian couple fight for custody of African girl

The couple, who cannot be named, say the child's mother effectively gave the girl to them shortly after birth.

In court documents seen by the Australian, the couple say the girl's mother - an African immigrant who works six days a week and is behind in her rent - signed a piece of paper entrusting the child to their care after acknowledging that she would find it difficult to look after her.

The mother's version of events is different. In court documents, she says it is common in African culture for the care of children to be shared among friends and neighbours.

She was happy when the wealthy, white couple - in particular, the wife, who is in her 60s, and whom she met at her workplace - offered to babysit the girl for free while she worked.

The arrangement, which began in mid-2001, soon expanded, with the little girl staying at the couple's home overnight and then for longer periods, and taking overseas holidays with them.

When the time came for the girl to start school, the couple offered to pay the fees at an expensive private college. The mother says she "believed it was best for her daughter to accept this generous offer". The girl lived with the couple during the week but the mother says she often visited and stayed overnight and had the girl on weekends and holidays.

But, she says, she grew concerned about the couple's influence on her daughter as she was growing up, saying she had started wearing expensive clothes and make-up, and complaining about the African food her mother prepared for her.

Matters came to head last December when the mother told the couple she wanted to take the girl, by then 7, out of the private school and get her into "normal clothes" and "African culture".

A short time later, the wife went to police and made a formal allegation against the mother, saying she believed she had circumcised the girl during the October school holidays.

Female genital mutilation is a crime in Australia.

The girl was immediately taken into state care, and placed with African foster parents while police and pediatricians investigated.

According to the police report, seen by The Australian, police went to the mother's flat at 5am on the day the allegation was made "and knocked on the door and a few minutes later an internal light came on. (The mother) asked from behind the door: ''Who is it?"

"The police said 'the police' and the mother opened the door and was seen to be wearing a nightdress and with her hair in a scarf. "She appeared concerned and asked something like, what is the problem?

"Police said, 'We need to talk to you ...' She invited us in and appeared anxious and wanted to know what was happening. She was very polite and asked us to come and sit."

The police told her they understood her daughter had been living in an "informal care arrangement" with the white couple. She appeared "confused and said: 'No, she lives with me and (they) help out'."

A welfare worker then told her she was accused of circumcising the girl.

She became "notably upset, saying 'No, no, no, no, we don't do that in my country' and raised her nightgown, to show police she was not herself circumcised".

The allegation has since been proved false; the girl has not been circumcised or cut in any way.

According to court documents, the mother was "distraught and distressed" at the "completely false and fabricated allegations" that she now believes were made "in a desperate attempt to keep the child" from her.

The court ordered a psychological examination of all parties to determine the girl's future. The mother, who is represented by legal aid lawyers, has collected references from neighbours, friends and workmates.

One says the little girl has been "bribed with luxuries". Another says: "It appears (the girl) has a pretty lavish life ... my feelings are that this is a case of a rich white person effectively stealing an exotic black child, using the state to enable the theft, and so far it is working."

Another says the child has become "detached from her culture and overwhelmed with a luxury lifestyle that (the mum) cannot maintain".

At a meeting observed by welfare workers, the girl headed straight for the white couple and climbed into the wife's lap.

The girl told social workers her biological mother "lies" and "does voodoo" and wants to "do black magic on me. I've got scars on my back from where she hit me". She ignored her mother for half the session, and then argued with her about clothes, hair and religion.

She asked her mother: "How come you don't look after any of your kids?"

The mother has two other children: a girl who is an adult with a child of her own, who lives in Africa; and a son, 13, who was until recently at boarding school in Africa, studying the Koran. The mother explained to the girl that things had been difficult since she arrived from Africa. She had to work six days a week, learn English, and then she had become a single mother.

The psychiatrist concluded the girl "basically sees herself as part of" the white family, who had "nurtured her emotionally and cared for her as if she were their own child or grandchild".

The wife says she has over time become the girl's "psychological mother" and has told the court the child "begs us not to send her to her mother".

The case is due to come before court on September 30.