Widow defends child adoption

A 30-year-old widow from Manus claims she is the biological mother of a child an Australian man and his Morobean fiancée claim to have adopted.
Agnes Timothy said she never signed any legal document that officially recognised the couple as adopted parents of her son Thomas and that she had been trying for a long time to reclaim her son from the couple.
“I agreed at first that the couple would take Thomas and look after him when I gave birth to him in August 2008,” she said.
“But I only did that because I did not know how to cope after my husband was killed.
“I saw the statutory declaration that was given to me by the couple to sign but I did not want to sign it after I heard that my late husband’s family were planning to take my three children, including Thomas, and chase me out of Butibum where I was living with my children,” Timothy said.
Her husband, who is from Butibum, in Morobe, was killed in car accident in March 2008 when she was into her third month of pregnancy with Thomas.
The National last week reported Australian Bradley Porter with his partner Edith Nagon, who is Thomas’ aunt, saying they had signed legal documents to adopt the boy.
But Timothy denied this, claiming she was still Thomas’ mother.
“I have put my complaints already with the Australian High Commision and asked them not to process Thomas’ visa,” she said.
“I have visited the welfare office in Waigani to get custody of all my children,” Timothy said.