An Australian couple at the centre of a Thai surrogate scandal today denied they deliberately abandoned their baby son because he had Down's syndrome and said they would fight to get him back.
David Farnell, 56, a convicted child sex offender and the biological father of the boy, Gammy, told Channel Nine he and his wife Wendy had "wanted to bring him with us".
It was their first interview since sparking global controversy after leaving the boy in Thailand with his 21-year-old Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua and taking only his healthy twin sister Pipah back home.
"We never said you (Pattaramon) can have this baby, no matter what," said an emotional David Farnell.
The couple claimed Pattaramon wanted to keep the girl and said they left Thailand without Gammy because "we were getting scared that we would lose her too and we had to try and get her out".
The Farnells, from Bunbury south of Perth, Western Australia, previously claimed they were told Gammy had a congenital heart condition but not Down's syndrome, and left him because doctors said he would not survive.
Gammy, now seven months old, has since been cleared of a heart condition by Bangkok specialists, an Australian charity which has raised more than US$240,000 for the infant said on Friday.
The charity, Hands Across The Water, said the boy had been released from hospital -- where he was being treated for a lung infection -- and was living in Bangkok with his family.
David Farnell claimed Pattharamon said: "If we try to take our little boy, she's going to get the police and she's going to come and take our little girl ... And she's going to keep both babies."
Pattaramon has said she agreed to carry another Thai donor's egg fertilised by the Australian man in exchange for around USD 14,900.
An agency, which she refuses to name for legal reasons, acted as the go-between.
She claims the agency told her the Farnells wanted her to have an abortion -- which is illegal in Thailand -- once medical tests revealed the boy had Down's syndrome, but she refused.
