Brit who sold unborn baby on 'Net jailed

[CShine]

LONDON -- A British woman pleaded guilty today to selling her unborn baby to two couples over the Internet and arranging for a third to buy it as well. Moira Greenslade, 33, from Keighley in northern England, got $4,500 after agreeing to give up her child to the couples she contacted though a surrogacy Web site. Greenslade pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to three charges of obtaining money by deception and three offenses under the Adoption Act. She was sentenced to two years in prison.

Judge Richard Henriques said Greenslade's behavior had undermined the role of the adoption services in this country. "Those couples who desperately seek a child are frequently prepared to go to extraordinary ends to meet their ambitions," he said. "Their hopes and prayers render them vulnerable to opportunists and fraudsters such as yourself."

Prosecutors said that in February last year, Greenslade agreed to sell her baby for $16,000 to a Scottish couple, Mark and Michelle Johnson. They gave her an initial payment of $2,700. She later obtained $1,800 from Peter and Sharon Robinson-Hudson, from Wrexham, north Wales, in a similar agreement, worth $9,000. She canceled both agreements shortly before the baby girl was born, and the Robinson-Hudsons complained to police. Greenslade was arrested on Dec. 11, soon after giving birth in Southampton, southern England.

Police learned she had signed an agreement to sell her child to a third couple, Janet and Andrew Rashley from Southampton. They were at the hospital for the birth but had not paid Greenslade.

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