Kilshaw twins adoption: 'I still think about them'

The twins now with their adoptive mother in America

The woman who tried to adopt baby twins 17 years ago using an internet agency, sparking a transatlantic legal row and media furore, has wished them well as they start university studies.

Judith and Alan Kilshaw had flown to the US and brought the twins back to north Wales, after spending £8,200 on the adoption.

But social services stepped in and the courts agreed the girls be sent back.

"I do think of them from time to time," said Judith Silett, who has remarried.

"I'm glad the girls are doing so well and going to university."

Judith and Alan Kilshaw with the twins in 2001

Her comments came after the Daily Mirror spoke with the couple who went on to adopt the girls, now aged 18, making a home for them in Missouri.

Their adoptive mother told the newspaper: "They have grown into fine young women, each with their own dreams and ambitions."

It was January 2001 when the then Prime Minister Tony Blair said action would be taken to stop the "deplorable" trading of babies to the highest bidder, and a shake-up in regulations followed.

A judge in Arkansas had approved the Kilshaws' adoption of the twins they named Beverley and Kimberley, but then a Californian couple came forward claiming custody of the girls.

The Kilshaws had hoped to bring the girls up at their farmhouse at Buckley, Flintshire, along with their other children.

Judith Kilshaw said the aftermath of the twins' adoption was "horrendous"

But after social services and the courts stepped in, the twins were returned to the US in April 2001 where they were placed in foster care before a third set of parents eventually brought them up.

Mrs Silett, now living in Wrexham, added: "The aftermath of the twins' adoption was horrendous on the rest of the family and broke the family apart really."