Abandoned baby`s parents meet social services to discuss his future

The parents of baby Charlie Penny, who was abandoned in Portugal
last week, have been talking to Bournemouth social services about
the child’s future, writes Janet
Snell.

Pam Donnellan, the council’s director of social services, said
in a statement that the authority had no previous knowledge of
either the baby or its mother Katherine Penny.

“Reports that the baby is on the child protection register and
that Ms Penny’s mother is a social worker with Bournemouth social
services are untrue.”

She added that because three-month-old Charlie was born in
Portugal and is still there, he does not currently come under the
council’s jurisdiction though social workers are liasing with their
counterparts in Portugal over whether he is to be sent here.

The boy, who was born with a cleft palate, was left near Faro
airport before his parents caught a plane to England.

He was found by a local resident and is now being cared for at a
Portuguese orphanage.