A baby girl looks set to become the subject of a bitter legal battle between her lesbian mother and her father.
The baby was born earlier this year after the child’s mother and her partner placed an advert for someone to father a child on a homosexual website.
The lesbian couple now plan to contest a bid by the baby’s father, Mark Hartill, to get access and full parental responsibility for his daughter.
Baby
The same-sex couple claim that Mr Hartill entered into a “gentleman’s agreement” not to be involved in the child’s upbringing.
Stacey Cassin, the mother’s civil partner, said: “The agreement was that Mark would be able to see the baby after the birth but he would not be a parent.
“Mark came to see her three times after the birth and has decided he wants to be a daddy, which breaks the verbal agreement we had.”
Row
She added: “We are determined to fight this through the courts, though we never wanted it to come to this.”
Mr Hartill said: “It’s a private matter only a few members of my family know about.
“I don’t want to say anything that could prejudice the case.”
Bitter
Earlier this month it was revealed that another lesbian mother had lost a bitter custody battle with the homosexual man who fathered her two children through artificial insemination.
The mother and her lesbian civil partner were challenging a previous ruling which said that the children should spend almost half the year with their father.
But Appeal Court judge Lady Justice Black rejected the appeal and ruled that the youngsters, one boy and one girl, should live with their father for 152 days of the year.