A court has rejected Slovakian parents’ attempt to block the adoption of their children by a same-sex couple.

The parents took the case to the High Court, accusing Kent County Council of ‘social engineering’ by placing their children with a gay couple.

The children, aged two and four, were put up for adoption over concerns about the couple’s parenting and alleged neglect.

The court had heard that the parents often left their children alone, leaving them unkempt and dirty, with their father admitting to regularly beating them.

Attempting to block the adoption, the couple had claimed in court: “Slovakia still does not recognise same sex couples and so their Slovak roots and values will not be maintained.

“The children will not be able to be brought up in the Catholic faith because of the conflicts between Catholicism and homosexuality.

“If as expected our children will try to find us and their siblings and roots, then they will discover huge differences between our culture and the way they’ve been brought up,

“This is likely to cause them great upset and to suffer a conflict within themselves such as to set them against their adoptive parents.”

However, senior Family Court Judge James Munby wrote in his judgement yesterday: “There is nothing in all the material I have seen to suggest that the children’s placement with the prospective adopters was inappropriate or wrong, let alone irrational or unlawful.

“I have to judge matters according to the law of England, and by reference to the standards of reasonable men and women in contemporary English society.

“The parents’ views, whether religious, cultural, secular or social, are entitled to respect but cannot be determinative.

“They have made their life in this country and cannot impose their own views either on the local authority or on the court.”

Lucie Boddington, of Slovakian charity Children Belong to Parents, said the parents will take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.