Probation for teenager who took baby

A TEENAGE girl who snatched a six-day-old boy from a hospital maternity ward was put on two years' probation yesterday.

The 17-year-old, said to be desperate to be a mother, took the child from University College Hospital, London, after learning she would probably never be able to have her own children.

But she was arrested as she tried to prepare a feed for the baby in another part of the hospital. The little boy was reunited unharmed with his mother just 31 minutes after being lifted from his cot, Camden youth court was told.

Sentencing the girl, who had admitted the offence, Lady Clare Blom-Cooper told her that a condition of probation was that she would have to live in a hostel for the first six months.

After the incident, University College Hospital carried out an independent security review and posted guards at the entrance to obstetrics wards.