A PORTUGESE family has adopted the cleft palate baby boy who was abandoned there by his Bournemouth parents.

Charles was dumped near Faro airport by parents Katherine Penny and Mark Beddoes on January 13 last year, when he was just three months old.

Now a Portuguese court has given an anonymous couple custody of the 21-month-old boy.

Ms Penny, 24, and Mr Beddoes, 30, of Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, both worked in timeshare sales in Albufeira before they left for Britain, leaving the baby there in a pushchair.

He has been cared for until now in a children's home in nearby Faro, where staff renamed him Carlos.

Ms Penny, who says she was suffering from post-natal depression when she left the baby has recently dropped a High Court bid to get Charles back.

The baby's new parents are said to be professionals in their early 40s, who have been on the waiting list for a child for three years.

In February Carlos had a successful two-hour operation to correct his cleft palate at a Lisbon hospital.