Her biological clock was ticking when Natalie Kennedy logged on to an unregulated co-parenting website to find a stranger to father her child.
Philip Thomas, a wealthy IT consultant, appeared an ideal match and Kennedy quickly became pregnant.
But her dream of sharing the joys of bringing up Alice in an admittedly unorthodox relationship became every mother’s nightmare when Thomas went on the run with their five-year-old daughter.
Natalie Kennedy at home with a photo of her daughter, Alice: she last saw her daughter when she dropped her off at school in July last year
NICHOLAS STRUGNELL FOR THE TIMES
Thomas, 54, appeared via video link from a secret foreign location at the High Court in London on Thursday to be told he would be immediately jailed for a year if he failed to return with Alice by March 7.
Kennedy’s ordeal acts as a stark warning to other women seeking a father for their babies without
