Local Authority v M & Anor

Facts

M was born in January 2000 in Houston, Texas, to A and B, unmarried black African Americans then living in Chicago; A had been moved to Texas by Blessed Trinity Adoptions Inc immediately before the birth for the purpose of the birth and adoption. Three days after the birth A signed an irrevocable affidavit relinquishing her parental rights to the agency, and when M was seven days old Judge Kern of the Family District Court of Fort Bend County appointed the agency temporary managing conservator with power to allow travel overseas. M, aged eleven days, was brought to England by C, who with her husband D had been the subject of home study reports prepared by Jay Carter, an "independent social worker" whose reports had been condemned in earlier English judgments. Judge Kern made a decree of adoption on 22 December 2000. The placement collapsed: C separated from D in May 2001, killed herself on 2 August 2001, and D declined to have M returned to him. M was voluntarily accommodated by Authority Z from 14 September 2001, and on 14 February 2002 that authority issued an originating summons seeking to free her for adoption. Her birth parents, traced to Milwaukee, said they wanted her back but ultimately took no part.