LONDON - A four year old Bosnian girl, pulled from beneath her mother's body after a massacre, should stay with her British foster parents despite their "appalling irresponsibility" while adopting her, a High Court judge has ruled.
Sir Stephen Brown ruled that although her close relatives had traced Edita Kcranovic and wanted her returned to their care, the girl's life should not be "shattered again". She should remain with the English family, the Fowlers, who had brought her to Britain for medical treatment and then adopted her.
"In my judgment her welfare requires that she should remain... in the care of Mr and Mrs Fowler under the authority of the court," said Sir Stephen. "However, it must fully and completely understood that she is not their daughter and that she is a Keranovic.
His ruling was given in private on Friday but made public yesterday.
The girl's mother was machine gunned to death by Bosnian Serb soldiers on May 31st, 1992, in a massacre of more than 30 women and children in the village of Hrustovo. Edita, then nine weeks old, was retrieved by a Serbian officer from the pile of bodies, and was taken to an orphanage.
Alan Fowler (62) and his wife Deborah (49) arranged for her to be brought to Britain for medical treatment and were granted an adoption order even though they were aware her grandfather was alive.