Abandoned child’s parents in talks

Bournemouth Council social services are having
talks with the parents of baby Charlie Penny, who was abandoned in
Portugal last week, over the child’s future.

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

She added that because three-month-old Charlie
was born in Portugal and is still there, he does not come under the
council’s jurisdiction, though social workers are liaising with
their Portuguese counterparts over whether he is to be sent to the
UK. The boy is now being cared for at an orphanage in Portugal.