Net couple plan to flee Britain to adopt

Mrs Kilshaw said the family will move abroad

The couple who paid an internet baby broker more than £8,000 for American twins intend to adopt an overseas baby.

Alan and Judith Kilshaw now intend to get a girl from America and move abroad to Turkey with their family.

The couple, from Buckley, north Wales, won notoriety when they lost their fight to keep US twin girls Kimberley and Belinda.

In a fly-on-the-wall documentary on Channel 4 on Wednesday, mother-of-four Mrs Kilshaw said despite the twins going back to America, her family would continue to look for another baby.

But tighter legislation to govern internet adoption and inter-country adoption is already under consideration, the Department of Health told BBC News Online.

Mrs Kilshaw said they would move abroad to escape Britain's strict adoption laws.

It is unclear which adoption agency the Kilshaws intend to use.

The documentary showed how the strain of the court battle had affected the Kilshaws.

The couple were shown arguing as Mrs Kilshaw, 47, told her husband at one point that she wanted a divorce, hated him and regretted their telling their story to a tabloid newspaper.

Tighter legislation

Last month the government announced plans to crackdown on the internet adoption of children as part of the Adoption and Children Bill.

Criticism of the Kilshaws' actions focused on the lack of regulation over adoption on the internet.

A Department of Health spokeswoman told BBC News Online that the Bill would get its next reading in Parliament in the Autumn.

But she said already changes had been introduced to procedures to tighten up on adoptions from abroad.

Private home studies of families wanting to adopt have largely been banned, with most people having to now go through their local authority.

And she said by early next year the intention was that Britain would adopt the Hague Convention which allows sanctions to be brought against people who bring children into the country without follow strict procedures.

"The idea is to try to find a home for children in their own culture and country.

Only after all options are exhausted will we look at bringing the child back to England or Wales," she said.

A spokeswoman for the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering said that the interests of the child should always be paramount.

"It is vital that you are assessed as an adopter.

"It is clear that there are some agencies that do not go through the proper procedures," she said.