13 KIDS IN CARE .. BUT I WANT MORE BABIES; Mum vows to carry on until she can keep child.

Byline: TOM PETTIFOR

A PREGNANT mum who has had all 13 of her children taken into care vowed yesterday to continue having babies until she can keep one.

Theresa Winters' children - aged between 16 and one - have all been removed as infants after she was accused of neglect.

Now she is five months pregnant with baby number 14 and dreading the thought of having to give it up too.

Theresa, 36, who has had 11 babies with current partner Toney, said: "We want to be a family. How many kids have we got to go through until we are allowed to keep them? It's heartbreaking but we can't keep going on like that."

The couple don't know what any of their children look like now. All they have are a handful of pictures from when they were babies and toddlers.

Theresa's eldest was put into care at two along with a baby sibling. The youngest of the 13 was born last year.

But so determined are the pair to have a family that Theresa will give birth again in November.

Speaking from her council house in Luton, Beds, she said: "It's upsetting but why should I give in? We want to be a family - with social services' help.

"The birth certificates are the only proof I've got that they're my kids."

Theresa's first two children - from an ill-fated marriage - were taken away in 1994 because of neglect. Since then all 11 babies she has had with Toney have been removed at birth.

Theresa added: "I wasn't perfect, always getting into mischief. They were right at the time to take the kids.

"But I've moved away from that now.

I've calmed down. All the aggression seems to have gone. I feel I'm being treated like a murderer.

"It wasn't how I wanted to live my life. When the kids come looking for us, as they always do, how am I going to explain all of this? It goes through my head every day."

Theresa is now convinced she can be a good mum and is begging for a chance to prove it.

She said: "When I was younger I was aggressive, but never towards the kids. I told them off, as any normal person would. I shouted at them. But I never hit them.

"In one sense they were right to take them away. It could have turned violent with social services. They thought if I was aggressive towards social services, I'd be aggressive towards my kids."

The couple have asked the council to carry out another pre-birth assessment to see whether there is a possibility of them keeping their new baby.

Their MP, Kelvin Hopkins, has also looked into the matter. Luton social services wrote to him with "concerns about severe neglect, lack of parenting ability and the consequent risk to any child in their care".

They added: "Assessments have not revealed any significant change in lifestyle or reduction in risk that would be needed for consideration to be given to a child remaining in her care."

A council source confirmed that all 13 children had been taken into care. A spokesman said: "It is a court process that results in babies being separated from parents. It is a court not the council that decides whether or not a child should be placed in care."

Last night a neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the couple lived off benefits but still managed to afford a 42in plasma TV and two computers.

He described them as "inseparable" but said: "The last time she knew they were going to take it from her, so she just walked out and left it, but they have said the system's against them.

"She told me, 'If they keep taking my children away, we are going to keep having more'. The problem is that they just wouldn't be able to look after a child, in my opinion."

He added that the couple have a dog which they often leave locked in the house. He said: "They got a complaint about the dog fouling the back garden."

CAPTION(S):

FIGHT Theresa and Toney with kids' birth records