STOLEN BABIES
SPECIAL REPORT: The North home at the centre of a national adoption scandal

Sunday Sun, 6th September 1998

by Georgina Dickinson

A NORTH home is at the centre of a national scandal over babies "stolen" from their mothers, the Sunday Sun can reveal.
For unmarried mums who had their children in the Church of England-run "haven" claim it was little better than a Victorian workhouse.
The records show that their babies were adopted... but they claim the infants were STOLEN straight from their arms.

HOME TRUTH... women who lost babies want a probe into Elswick Lodge.

Snatched

Now the women who tried in vain to cling on to their babies want a public inquiry into what happened after the births.
Ashington-born Pat Basquill last saw her daughter on April 9, 1962, when she was just nine weeks old.
To this day, Pat believes she did not give her baby up for adoption... instead she claims her baby was callously snatched away from her in a plot hatched by the Church and the State.
Pregnant and scared, a 15-year-old Pat was sent to Elswick Lodge, a Church of England home for unmarried mothers in Newcastle.
Pat believes all attempts to keep her beloved baby were illegally blocked by the people she thought were there to help and protect her.
"It seems to me that they took advantage of our vulnerability," said Pat. "None of us knew our rights. But we didn't want to give up our babies."
Some "moral welfare workers" at the home constantly reassured Pat that she would NOT have to give up her baby.
And after the birth she was asked to sign papers which she thought would ensure she would keep her baby.

Lies

But unknown to Pat she was signing her future with her child away.
Memories of the way she was treated while staying in Elswick Lodge still haunt her today. "When my parents
found out that I was pregnant all hell broke loose," she recalled.
"Before I knew it I was taken to the dock area of Newcastle and admitted to Elswick Lodge."
It took more than 30 years of searching for Pat to find her little girl, Elaine.
But the story had no fairytale ending. She explained: "Because of the lies about me, she refuses to have any contact."
And a heartbroken Pat pleaded: "I just wish she would give me a chance to explain."
Church-run adoption agencies such as Elswick Lodge are now being asked to come clean about their past.
Yet when the Sunday Sun approached the Church of England's Newcastle Diocesan centre, a spokesman there said: "How are we expected to remember 30 years ago?"
However, a former member of staff at Elswick Lodge - who did not wish to be identified - recalled how things were.
The worker told the Sunday Sun: "Some mothers were allowed to keep babies while others went for adoption.
"It wasn't always what the mothers wanted but circumstances made it so."
But Pat believes she will never forget her harrowing experience at Elswick Lodge.
She said: "It was a huge bleak building with immense iron gates and the inside was even more grim.
"I shared a tiny bedroom with two other pregnant girls. The floor was bare, there were no curtains or heating. And the bedding felt damp."
But spartan living conditions weren't the only thing that the heavily pregnant teenagers had to contend with.

Agony

Right up to their first labour pains, they were forced to carry out chores which may have been too much even for girls who weren't pregnant.
Padmini Dearden is another birth mother who went to Elswick Lodge. She said: "The whole place was run like a Victorian workhouse. But one of the most horrific things was that they made you stay with your baby for six weeks after it was born.
"It was heartbreaking. Why did they prolong our agony?"
Unlike Pat, Padmini has never been able to trace her baby.
Yet an article written in 1961 by Newcastle Diocesan Council for Moral Welfare - who ran the home from 1920 to 1969 - saw nothing wrong.
"Those who go there find themselves in a Christian atmosphere where their personal problems and needs are given full consideration," it said.
That's a view the mothers of Elswick Lodge would clearly disagree with.
When Pat finally gave birth she still firmly believed she would be offered help to ensure she got to keep her baby. But her moral welfare worker had other ideas.
"When she came to visit me shortly after the birth she assured me she would help make sure my baby was NOT taken away," recalled Pat.

Abused

"She put some papers in front of me and was adamant that by signing I'd ensure my baby wasn't put into a home.
"To protect my baby I signed."
But what Pat had actually signed were papers ensuring that she would never cradle her baby again.
She said: "The amount of coercion going on at these types of places was just incredible. Thousands of young women were forced to sign away their babies.
"These people abused our innocence. There were laws to protect youngsters but where adoption was concerned the State disregarded this protection."
But now thanks to groups like Pat's, times are set to change. She added: "Now we are starting to tell women their rights. And they are angry."

'The amount of coercion going on at these types of places was just incredible. Thousands of young women were forced to sign away their babies'

Copyright © Patricia Basquill, 2002 - 2008