Keep babies secret from grandparents, says judge

A couple in their 60s need not be told that they have twin baby grandchildren, a senior family court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Cobb was told that the couple’s daughter wanted the twins to be adopted and had asked for them to be placed with a foster carer as soon as they were born.

She had not seen the babies, a boy and girl, since the day of their birth last year, although she had given them names and had registered their births.

The judge has concluded that formally notifying the woman’s parents of the twins’ existence, as requested by social services in Leeds, would be a “purposeless exercise”. The babies will be put up for adoption.