An elderly Spanish nun has become the first person to appear in court in connection with the alleged theft of newborn babies, mostly during the Franco era.

Thousands of babies are thought to have been taken from parents in hospitals and given to other families, starting in the 1936-39 Civil War, but there have been suspected cases as late as the 1990s.

Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena, 80, is accused of stealing a mother's newborn daughter at a Madrid hospital in 1982.

Wendy Urquhart reports.