British couple ’sold’ kids for money

LONDON - A British couple, who adopted two girls after passing several tests, compelled them to undergo horrific sexual abuse for money, a media report said Wednesday.

The man and his wife passed a number of checks that allowed them to adopt when the younger girl was just five, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

But after two years the husband began to sexually assault her, a crown court in Manchester was told.

Later, allegedly with the full knowledge of the wife, they allowed both girls to be minded after school by a pair of paedophiles, the court heard.

When one of the children told her adoptive mother what was going on, she replied, “Just leave it, we’ll have to see what happens”.

She later added that she could do nothing, as one of the men “helped us with money and a car”, it is alleged.

One of the abusers, Colin Molloy, 46, was jailed indefinitely last year for nine counts of raping the younger girl when she was eight. Samuel Nelson, 43, who preyed on the older girl, was given nine years.

The adoptive parents stood trial over their alleged role Tuesday.

The husband abused the younger girl over a six-year period, the court heard.

While the sexual assaults were taking place, the couple also started ‘loaning’ the sisters to Molloy and Nelson to abuse them after school, the jury was told.

The couple then began allowing Nelson to look after the girls after school, the court heard, and he began abusing the older girl, who was 13 at the time.

The court heard the father apologised to the girl after hurting her but continued to abuse her.

The alleged abuse only came to light when one of the girls told a teacher that an ‘uncle’ had been touching her.

The girls were removed from the family home last year.

The older girl, now 16, later told police her adoptive father would beat her if she refused his sexual advances, leaving her “bruised and sore”.

“He said he wanted to have sex with me,” she told officers in an interview played to the jury.

The 55-year-old adoptive father denies 15 counts of indecent assault and indecency with a child. He and his wife, 54, also deny five counts of child neglect.