Armed police officers escorted the African infant being adopted by Madonna off a British Airways flight Tuesday, whisking him past photographers hoping to get a glimpse of the baby as he was being taken to the pop star's home.
Three armed police officers, together with airline and airport officials, accompanied David Banda through Heathrow's Terminal 1 to the baggage hall. The entourage then hustled the little boy wrapped in a gray coat through the back door and into a silver Mercedes minivan.
"What you're waiting for has already left," said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy.
The pop star and her husband, Guy Ritchie, were not seen at the airport.
Banda left his native Malawi as human rights and child protection groups said they would go to court Tuesday to challenge the speedy court decision that they said waived laws to allow Madonna to have temporary custody of the child.
A statement from Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist in New York, said the child was issued a passport and a visa Monday. The couple were granted interim adoption of the child, who was granted a visa that allows him to travel with them, Rosenberg said.
"This interim adoption grants David's new parents temporary custody for 18 months, during which time they will be evaluated by the courts of Malawi per the tribal customs of the country," she said in her statement said. "It is expected that the family will be reunited in the next few days." Rosenberg said Madonna had wanted this to be a private matter, and declined to say when and where the family would be reunited.
"She's going to do her best to not make it a public circus," Rosenberg told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's not my sense that she would want to expose the whole thing to public scrutiny." Banda was accompanied when he left Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, by two Britons and two Americans, one of whom listed her occupation as nanny, according to a Malawi immigration official at the airport who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Source: Associated Press.
Three armed police officers, together with airline and airport officials, accompanied David Banda through Heathrow's Terminal 1 to the baggage hall. The entourage then hustled the little boy wrapped in a gray coat through the back door and into a silver Mercedes minivan.
"What you're waiting for has already left," said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy.The pop star and her husband, Guy Ritchie, were not seen at the airport.
Banda left his native Malawi as human rights and child protection groups said they would go to court Tuesday to challenge the speedy court decision that they said waived laws to allow Madonna to have temporary custody of the child.
A statement from Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist in New York, said the child was issued a passport and a visa Monday. The couple were granted interim adoption of the child, who was granted a visa that allows him to travel with them, Rosenberg said.
"This interim adoption grants David's new parents temporary custody for 18 months, during which time they will be evaluated by the courts of Malawi per the tribal customs of the country," she said in her statement said. "It is expected that the family will be reunited in the next few days." Rosenberg said Madonna had wanted this to be a private matter, and declined to say when and where the family would be reunited.
"She's going to do her best to not make it a public circus," Rosenberg told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's not my sense that she would want to expose the whole thing to public scrutiny." Banda was accompanied when he left Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, by two Britons and two Americans, one of whom listed her occupation as nanny, according to a Malawi immigration official at the airport who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Source: Associated Press.
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