Baby find girl's plea for mum to come forward (From Bucks Free Press)

Baby find girl's plea for mum to come forward

2:33pm Wednesday 16th September 2009 in Local Video News By Oliver Evans

A STUDENT who was among those who found an abandoned baby in High Wycombe today appealed for her mother to come forward.

Holly Hughes, 20, made the appeal at a press conference more than a week after baby Rosie was found in Oxford Road.

Police today said the child had been placed in foster care – and while CCTV had so far drawn a blank, a DNA test could link Rosie to her parents.

They said no charges would be brought and re-iterated their concern for the mothers’ health, as the birth is believed to be unsupervised. The child had its umbilical cord attached.

The baby was found last Tuesday at about 5pm in bushes opposite the JobCentre. It is thought the child was up to four days old and left between 12pm and 3pm.

Miss Hughes, of West Wycombe Road, said: “I was walking home from town with my boyfriend and we saw an old man just in front of us on the pavement leaning over, looking into a handbag on the floor.”

Boyfriend Drew Leonard, from Milton Keynes, said “something like ‘there’s a baby in that’” she recalled.

The former Wycombe High School pupil said: “It was a shock. I was a bit scared. My initial reaction was just to pick it up, it was a baby, to hold it and look after it.

“The shock kind of goes away when you realise what to do.”

She said: “She was being really quiet. She was kicking her legs so I could tell that she seemed all right.”

The Aberystwyth University zoology student said she touched her cheek gently, which was warm.

And she said of the mother: “She must have been really scared. I would like her to come forward.

“I have met baby Rosie and she is really lovely and just needs her mum.”

Miss Hughes told Bucks Free Press: “I think she has her own reasons for it and we shouldn’t judge her before we have found out what the reason is.”

She said she hoped to visit Rosie, who left Wycombe Hospital in Monday for foster care arranged by Buckinghamshire County Council.

DS Kelly Glister, who is leading the search, said officers were following “a number of inquiries”.

She re-stated her appeal for the mother to come forward in case she is suffering from complications from the birth.

DS Glister said: “At this stage the decision is that there will be no prosecution.”

Regarding CCTV she told the Free Press: “There is not an enormous amount of coverage.

“We are trawling through some CCTV for which we are hopeful was pointing in the right direction and switched on and will cover the whole period of the morning.”

She said DNA had been taken from Rosie through a painless mouth swab and from the cardigan and bag.

Rosie’s DNA could be run against criminal and missing person’s databases, she said.

Her foster carers are in Buckinghamshire but not High Wycombe, she said.

DS Glister said: “The general feeling is the mother is local, considering the location Rosie was found in. Someone has got to know something about the mum.”

Anyone with information should call Thames Valley Police on 0845 8 505 505 or Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.