Last summer, something crazy happened at Gatwick Airport. A Nigerian woman allegedly smuggled and flew in with a baby from Nigeria, and was immediately arrested on suspicion of child trafficking.
News outlets are calling her Susan. She’s Nigerian, had been living in West Yorkshire with her husband and kids since mid-2023, and was working as a care-worker. Everything seemed normal, before she smuggled a baby.
The ‘Pregnancy’
Before flying out to Nigeria in June 2024, Susan told her GP (doctor) she was pregnant. Only problem was… she wasn’t. In fact, scans and blood tests revealed a tumour which her doctors thought could be cancer. However, she refused treatment and doubled down: her pregnancies, she claimed, just don’t show up on scans. (Her actual words were; “My babies are always hidden.”)
She also claimed her past pregnancies had lasted up to 30 months. Yes, 30. You read that correctly.
She leaves for Nigeria saying she wants to give birth there. A month later, she’s back in the UK — this time with a baby girl news outlets are calling Eleanor. That’s when the police stepped in. Arrested on the spot. There isn’t an active criminal investigation at the moment, but that moment opened the door to one of the most bizarre and disturbing child protection cases I’ve heard about in a while.
The Investigation
Susan insisted Eleanor was her daughter. She demanded DNA testing with confidence, demanding that Eleanor be returned to her care after the results came out.
The results however, painted a different picture. Eleanor was not her baby. Not her husband’s either. She pushed for a second test. Same result. That’s when the story changed.
She claimed she’d had IVF back in Nigeria with donor egg and sperm, which was why the baby wasn’t biologically linked. Convenient, right?
She came with receipts: a letter from a Nigerian hospital saying she gave birth there, plus a document showing she had IVF treatment. Even some photos and a video of a woman (face not shown) in a labour suite, placenta still attached. But here’s the thing — no one could verify any of it. Not even the doctor who signed the birth letter.
The hospital she claimed to use for IVF had no record of her. Staff even said the documents were forged.
The doctor who allegedly delivered Eleanor told the court yes, someone gave birth there, but it wasn’t Susan. He flat-out said she may have smuggled the baby. And in that part of the world, sadly, that’s not uncommon.
This is where things get interesting.
The investigator on the case, an experienced social worker named Henrietta Coker, told the court this case wasn’t isolated. She’s worked on around a dozen like it. And yes, “baby farming” is real. At least 200 illegal baby factories have been shut down in Nigeria in the past five years. A good number of these places kidnap young girls, rape them, and force them to give birth over and over again, while engaging in child smuggling. Some girls die. Some disappear.
We don’t know where Eleanor came from. The doctor who signed the letter believes she may have been voluntarily given up, but no one knows for sure.
The Court
The family court ordered a full investigation. Susan’s phone was checked, and messages were found from a contact saved as “Mum oft Lagos Baby” (yes, that’s the actual name). In one message, Susan asks: “Good afternoon ma, I have not seen the hospital items.” The reply: “Delivery drug is 3.4 million. Hospital bill 170k.” (That’s about £1,700 and £85 in British currency.)
And the messages were on auto self-destruct mode. So yes, it looked like a baby purchase arrangement.
Susan and her lawyers tried to explain it away in court, but the judge called her story “impossible to accept”. He ruled that Susan and her husband had staged an elaborate lie — complete with fake documents, hospital photos, and emotional appeals — to smuggle a baby into the UK.
And the harm wasn’t just legal, the judge said their actions caused Eleanor “significant emotional and psychological harm.”
The Aftermath
At the final court hearing this July, Susan and her husband appeared remotely. Their lawyers argued they loved Eleanor and just wanted to raise her like their own children, who were apparently thriving.
But the court wasn’t buying it. The judge ordered that Eleanor be placed for adoption. He also made a formal declaration of non-parentage.
Eleanor is now with a foster carer, reportedly doing well, getting medical care, and integrating into her community. Once she’s adopted, she’ll receive a new identity and British nationality. But she may never know who her real parents are.
This case goes to show that things aren’t always what they seem.
So here we are. What are your thoughts on this case?
Ifeyinwa
