Baby joy for couple whose children were stolen by social workers

Now Mark and Nicky Webster are celebrating learning that Nicky is pregnant once more.

The news comes as the couple prepare to launch their Appeal Court bid to be reunited with their three oldest children, who were all under the age of five when they were removed from their care by Norfolk County Council four years ago.

Mark and Nicky Webster with son Brandon

The children, who can only be referred to as Child A, B and C for legal reasons, were adopted in 2004,  following a Family Court hearing that lasted just one day and relied almost entirely on now discredited medical evidence that a fracture sustained by Child B could only have been caused by violent abuse.

The Websters have since been granted legal aid to appeal against the original care order, the freeing order that followed and the adoption order that led to the devastating loss of all three of their children.

Speaking last night at their home in Cromer, Nicky said: ‘We’re thrilled and excited about the new baby. This is something we’ve been hoping for since January.

'We never intended our son Brandon to be an only child. I’m one of five and I don’t want to deny Brandon that joy of growing up as part of a larger family.

‘He has a sister and two brothers but they’re strangers to him and he’s too little to understand what happened.’

It is now two years since Nicky, 28, and Mark, 35, fearful that they would lose their fourth child in a similar fashion, fled to Ireland, where Brandon was born.

Now the couple are once again considering travelling to Ireland, for the birth of Brandon’s younger sibling, due in April.

Nicky explained: ‘Our experiences here in Norfolk have been so difficult, I would love to give birth in Ireland again.

‘It was very traumatic in so many ways. But the Irish have a way of making you welcome and we felt that in spite of everything. That’s where Brandon was born, so it has good associations.’

In the meantime, they are still working to bring their other children – now eight, six and five – home. Nicky said: ‘We are just waiting for our Appeal Court date now. I’m being as positive as possible about it. Nobody has tried to reverse an adoption in a situation like ours.

‘There is no precedent, so it’s not as if anybody has tried and failed – it just hasn’t been done. Of course, we’re very conscious that if we are successful and the children are reintroduced into the family it will be hard for Brandon if he suddenly has to share us with three other children.

‘He’s very much a mummy’s boy and I think it would be easier for him to get used to the idea of sharing us if it starts with a baby.’

But, however delighted the couple are with the prospect of another baby, it has meant making a painful decision. Mark and Nicky had left their daughter’s room untouched since the moment she was taken from them.

In her darkest hours, Nicky would retreat into the room and lie on the bed that, she said, still smelled of her little girl.

Nicky and Brandon celebrate the good news

Now, with the prospect of another arrival, practicalities have had to take precedence.

Nicky explained: ‘We moved Brandon into our daughter’s room a few weeks ago. I have to admit it was really, really hard. We painted the pink walls blue for him and moved out her toys and put them into the smallest room, which will be the baby’s.

‘She’ll be quite a big girl now, really, and I don’t suppose she’d still want her room that way any more, anyway. But it doesn’t mean we’ve moved on or don’t believe we’ll get her back.

‘We’ll fight to get all our children back. We owe it to them and to  Brandon and to the little one on the way to do everything we can.’