Australian father accused of abandoning baby boy born to Thai surrogate mother because he had Down Syndrome 'was jailed for sexual assault on a child under 13'

Baby Gammy's Thai surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, claims the boy's biological parents are a West Australian couple

The father accused of abandoning Gammy reportedly has served jail time for child sex offences



The Australian couple denied they were Gammy's parents, though they do have a daughter, the same age as Gammy, born via a Thai surrogate

Ms Chanbua claims the parents told her they were 'too old' to parent twins



The baby boy is now receiving treatment at renowned Samitivej Sriracha Hospital in Bangkok



The Australian father accused of abandoning a Down Syndrome baby born to a Thai surrogate mother reportedly has a criminal conviction for child sex offences.

The man at the centre of baby Gammy's surrogacy ordeal was found guilty and jailed in 1998 for indecently dealing with a child under the age of 13, Nine News reports.

His wife confirmed the conviction but said he was still a good man and that he has 'changed'.



The couple, from Bunbury in Western Australia, continue to deny they are the biological parents of Gammy and claim they didn't even know he existed until recently.



Gammy's surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, has accused the couple of taking her son's twin sister but leaving him behind because he was sick.



She has also now demanded Gammy's sister be returned to her in Thailand after learning of the Australian man's child sex offence.



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Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua holds her baby Gammy, born with Down Syndrome, at the Samitivej hospital on Monday She told Fairfax Media: 'I am very worried about my baby girl. I need help from anyone who can bring my girl back to me as soon as possible... this news make me sick.

'I will take care of my twin babies. I will not give her or him to any family that wants a baby.'

The father today told the ABC that Ms Pattaramon was not the woman he believed carried his child and that he had had problems with the Thai agency, which has now shut down.

The couple, who have not been identified, are expected to release a statement through a lawyer some time in the coming hours.

Gammy's mother has threatened to sue the family, claiming that the children’s biological father, who is in his 50s, had visited her after she gave birth.

He had only bought milk for the girl, she claimed, and ‘never looked at Gammy’.

'The twins stayed next to each other but the father never looked at Gammy...could say he never touched Gammy at all,' she said. Ms Pattaramon kisses seven-month-old baby Gammy at the Thai hospital There are no restrictions for child sex offenders who are going overseas for surrogacy under Australian law. However, it is illegal for people living in Queensland, NSW and the ACT to undertake commercial surrogacy in Thailand.

'If you are going to a dodgy agency in Thailand no questions are asked,' surrogacy lawyer Stephan Page told Daily Mail Australia. He said child safety authorities in Australia assess the risk of sex offenders having surrogate children on a case by case basis. Asked whether he thinks child protection will intervene in the case of Gammy's sister, Page said: 'Who knows what will happen?'



The Abbott government may intervene, saying that Gammy could be eligibly for Australian citizenship Ms Pattaramon told the ABC that the pair had cried on the day that they collected their daughter from hospital but left their son behind.

She also alleges that they asked her to have an abortion when she found out that she was carrying a child with Down Syndrome.

Gammy’s plight has provoked fury across the world with critics savaging his biological parents. Donations have poured in and now stand at more than $200,000.

Meanwhile the little boy is still gravely ill at Samitivej Sriracha Hospital in Chonburi province, southeastern Thailand.

He is battling a lung infection and, at one point, his birth mother did not expect him to survive. Australia’s Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has labelled Ms Pattaramon a ‘saint’ and an ‘absolute hero’ and said the outpouring of support was a strong indicator of the way Australians felt about the situation.

Ms Pattaramon says she will sue Gammy's Australian biological parents for leaving their son behind in Thailand

Gammy's story could prompt the Australian government to look closer at surrogacy laws with the Department of Foreign Affairs already examining practices in Thailand.



Agencies were working with Thai officials on the broader surrogacy issues, the department said.



Mr Morrison said the legalities surrounding international surrogacy were ‘very, very, very murky’ and regulations must be looked at carefully.



‘Sure, there are lots of Australians who are desperate to be parents but that can never, I think, sanction what we have just seen here,’ he said.



Prime Minister Tony Abbott has also said the case illustrates the pitfalls of international surrogacy.

On Friday a Mr Page warned that babies of desperate Australians who are using surrogate mothers in Thailand could end up being put into orphanages after Thai surrogacy laws changed last week



Australians using surrogates in Thailand could also be prosecuted for human trafficking under the new laws that ban surrogacy if the prospective parents aren't blood relatives.



The lawyer called the changes 'appalling' and said his clients have been left with no way to contact the pregnant woman carrying their babies, after the Thai military allegedly confiscated medical records from IVF clinics.



'I've been contacted by parents who can't contact the surrogate parents midway through pregnancy. They can't find out whether their baby or the mother is OK,' Mr Page told Daily Mail Australia.



'It's a disaster how the Thai government have announced it.



'These children didn't ask to born in this mess,' he explained.

Pattaramon Chanbua shared a tender moment with her baby boy Gammy at a hospital in Chonburi province, southeastern Thailand on Sunday

Gammy, pictured here with his older brother Game and mother Ms Chanbua, is expected to be moved to a hospital in Bangkok in the coming days The three of them sit happily huddled together on a hospital bed, Game keeping an eye on his little brother

More than $182,000 has been raised so far for Gammy's mother to pay for her sick son's medical expenses



In hospital on Sunday the six-month-old held onto a creme coloured bear, who looked to be wearing a doctor's lab coat

Ms Chanbua previously said she loved the six-month-old boy like he was her own child, and has vowed to care for her son

Commercial surrogacy, where a woman is paid a fee to carry a child, is illegal in Australia.



However, if there is an agreement for the biological parents to cover just medical and other reasonable costs, the practice is legal.

Ms Pattaramon told of her heartbreak at Gammy's situation, saying she loved the baby boy like he was her own.

'This was the adults' fault. And who is he to endure something like this even though it's not his fault?' she told the ABC .



'Why does he have to be abandoned and the other baby has it easy?



Ms Chanbua said she treated the six-month-old like he was one of her own children.



'I love him, he was in my tummy for nine months, it’s like my child,' she told the ABC.

' Never think that you're not my child, that I don't care for you.'

'I would like to tell Thai women – don't get into this business as a surrogate. Don't just think only for money ... if something goes wrong no one will help us and the baby will be abandoned from society, then we have to take responsibility for that,' Ms Chanbua said, The Sydney Morning Herald reported earlier on Friday.

The campaign by charity Hands Across The Water is still ongoing and they have vowed to donate every cent raised to looking after the little boy

The young mother, who lives 90km south of Bangkok and has two other children, aged three and six, was paid a total of $16,000 by the couple to give birth to the baby.

The couple paid an extra $1673 when they first realised - three-months into the pregnancy - that Ms Chanbua was having twins for them and reportedly told her to have an abortion. Ms Chanbua is a Buddhist and refused to have the abortion on moral grounds.



She originally agreed to become a surrogate mother because of her family's financial problems and the arrangement was set-up through an agency, which has since been closed down.



The Australian man and his ethnic-Asian wife could not conceive a baby themselves.



'Because of the poverty and debts, the money that was offered was a lot for me,' she told the ABC.



'In my mind, with that money, we one could educate my children and two we can repay our debt.'

The Australian couple, who have remained anonymous, reportedly told Ms Chanbua to have an abortion



Ms Chanbua, 21, agreed to become a surrogate mother because of her family's financial problems