- SAN ANTONIO -- A woman in
America who left her seven adopted children when she went to work as a
contractor in Iraq is due to appear in court today after they were found
sick, hungry and covered with sores in a squalid orphanage in
Africa.
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- Mercury Liggins, 47, from Texas, sent the children, all
US-born, to Nigeria to live with a relative and then spent three months
employed in Iraq for Halliburton, the oil services company.
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- The children's fate came to light only when a missionary,
also from Texas, stumbled on the family during a visit to the home, which
he described as an "unbelievable cesspool", reeking of urine.
Sceptical that the three boys and four girls really were from the US, the
priest, Warren Beemer, began singing The Star-Spangled Banner. The children
joined in, placing their hands on their hearts, as all good Americans
should,
for the national anthem.
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- The children, aged from eight to 16, are now home and
being cared for by foster parents, eating pizza, buying clothes for school
and watching Harry Potter films.
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- Their mother is in hospital, having suffered a breakdown
and today faces a court which may deprive her of custody of the children
forever.
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- The tale of their extraordinary ordeal has prompted
speculation
that Mrs Liggins adopted the children chiefly for the £282 monthly
state allowance she received for each child.
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- She boasted of going on holiday to the Caribbean and
Mexico while her children complained of going hungry, according to local
media.
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- In all, she has 11 children, two of her own and another
adopted pair, with the older four living with her first husband, plus the
seven discovered in Nigeria this month.
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- Between adopting four children from the same biological
mother in Houston in 1996 and three from a different mother from Dallas
in 2001, she filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Her current husband, who was
born in Nigeria, reportedly suggested that the seven younger children live
with his brother and they moved to Ibadan last October. At first, funds
were transferred from the US to pay for their education, board and
lodging.
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- While they were out of the country, their mother even
worked for KBR, a catering arm of the oil support corporation, Halliburton,
in Iraq but left the company to return home in July.
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- The arrangement whereby her in-laws cared for the
children
in Nigeria "didn't work out" Mrs Liggins admitted, according
to court records. Late last month the seven, some already suffering from
malnutrition, malaria or typhoid, were put in a government orphanage which
doubles as a remand home for underage criminals such as thieves and
rapists.
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- "It was truly horrible," Mr Beemer told his
home church in San Antonio, describing his chance visit to the institution.
"The smell of urine was everywhere. I walked through the kitchen and
there was mould-covered food. I went to the sleeping quarters; the smell
of urine was so strong that it took my breath away."
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- Apart from singing the national anthem, the Liggins
children
convinced the missionary that they were from Houston by listing the names
of their schools and teachers and answering questions about its basketball
team, the Rockets.
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- Since their return, the children have told Texas social
services of beatings while in their mother's care and threats that they
would be sent to Africa if they complained.
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- Michael Delaney, Mrs Liggins's lawyer, said she was
"a
working mother, financially supporting the children in the best possible
care that she could while abroad.
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- LaQuinta Teague, the birth mother of the three Dallas
children, said: "I'm shocked. If they were going to do that to my
kids, they could have brought them back to me."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/
- 2004/08/26/wligg26.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/26/ixworld.html
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