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A crowd of mothers who say they were robbed of their babies shouted “shameless” at the grim-faced nun as she was escorted out of the court through a throng of journalists to a car.

CIVIL WAR

An association of parents and families, Anadir, has presented more than 900 lawsuits alleging child-stealing. Most have been thrown out due to lack of evidence.

Many mothers say they were told by health or religious workers their babies had died at birth or shortly after, but were neither shown a body nor given a proper death certificate.

Anadir says the practice began in the 1940s when, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the fascist government stole babies from political prisoners from the defeated Republican side.

In subsequent decades it became a money-making racket, the victims claim. Parents who wanted to adopt babies were often referred to clinics that were known for finding babies for desperate families.

Many of the mothers have said they believe their babies were taken due to a mistaken paternalism on the part of the doctors or religious workers who may have seen them as unfit mothers because they were young, poor or unmarried.

“JAIL FOR ADULTERY”

One mother testified in court last week that Gomez Valbuena had told her she could be jailed for adultery. The nun threatened to take her baby away and give it to another family, and later said the baby had died.

The mother, Maria Luisa Torres, has been able to prove through DNA tests the baby she was told had died 30 years ago is alive after being adopted by another family.