British couple to appeal over internet adoption ruling

The British couple at the center of a transatlantic custody battle over American twins adopted on the Internet said today they…

The British couple at the center of a transatlantic custody battle over American twins adopted on the Internet said today they would appeal an Arkansas court ruling that the girls' fate be decided in Missouri courts.

Mr Alan Kilshaw, who with his wife Judith adopted the twins last year, said he he had consulted briefly with his Arkansas attorney who advised lodging an appeal.

An Arkansas judge ruled yesterday that the twin girls adopted twice through an Internet agency belonged to neither a Californian couple nor the British couple claiming them and that a Missouri court should decide custody.

Judge Mackie Pierce found that neither the Kilshaws of Buckley, North Wales, nor Richard and Vickie Allen of San Bernadino, California, had met legal requirements to adopt the girls, born June 26th in St Louis, Missouri.

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The judge asked that the girls, now under foster care in Britain pending court rulings there, be sent back to the United States.

The girls were placed for adoption through an Internet agency after their biological parents, Tranda and Aaron Wecker, separated. The biological mother has said she wants her daughters back, and on Monday Mr Wecker said he wanted to raise them.

The Arkansas judge also ruled that neither Wecker nor the Kilshaws met Arkansas residency adoption requirements and therefore the adoption was not legal. The British couple adopted the twins in Arkansas, which has more lenient adoption laws.