Faking it: Raymonde Miessan, 39, claimed she had given birth in her native country

A childless couple who desperately tried to start a family for more than ten years smuggled in a baby from Africa.

Raymonde Miessan, 39, pretended she was pregnant and returned to her native Sierra Leone, bringing back a son a few months later, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

She and husband Kacou, 44, then began a new life with the baby at their home in Ashford, Kent.

Mrs Miessan registered the birth Sierra Leone and was able to get a passport for him because she was a French national.

The thrilled new parents named the boy ‘Matys’ – which means ‘Gift from God’.

But their happiness was short-lived after a judge in a property dispute between the couple and a relative discovered the child had been brought into the UK illegally.

When confronted, Mrs Miessan insisted her mother had found the baby in a bin with his umbilical cord still attached.

The district judge at Canterbury County Court then asked Mr Miessan if the child had been brought to the UK illegally, and he confessed.

James Bilsland, prosecuting, told the Canterbury Crown Court that Mrs Miessan had lied to the authorities about giving birth when in fact she had never been pregnant.

The couple were jailed for 12 months on February 1 by Judge Adele Williams.

She told them: ‘The mischief in this offence was that you disguised the child’s identity, travelling across international borders on a false ID. It is a very serious matter.

‘You told lies about the child’s identity and subverted all the proper and necessary checks and procedures.’

The Miessans admitted smuggling the child into the UK with fake documents at Canterbury Crown Court on January 14.

Matys has now been taken into care and a High Court judge has ruled that he is to be offered for adoption.

The couple, who said the boy was a ‘gift from God’ were jailed for 12 months at Canterbury Crown Court

DNA tests revealed the child’s parents are likely to be from South Africa or Namibia.

The court heard that Mrs Miessan told investigators: ‘We did it to help him. We are sorry we didn’t do it by the rules.

‘We intended to give something good back by giving Matys a good life.’

She had told police that in her home country: ‘No one was safe. Everybody’s life is precious.

‘There were loads of children who were abandoned. I am sorry that I laugh because it’s a good job I only came back with one.

‘If I had been able to I would have brought in more, because there were loads of children who were abandoned… there were loads of children dead.

‘It is true that I lied to the authorities but to me it was to save a child from death, give him an identity, a name, an education. Now he has been taken away from me.’

She said that when she was with the baby, she received a call from her husband asking her to get him to speak down the telephone.

Her husband said: ‘I wanted to hear his voice. I say something stupid to her like: “Please make him cry so I can hear his voice”, so I can use my telephone to record his voice. At least I will always have his voice on my telephone.’

Mr Miessan, who only played father for eight weeks before the truth was revealed, added: ‘Matys was everything to us. He is more than everything to us.

‘I told my lawyer that he wasn’t just a name because his name means something to us, Matys means God given. For us he was a present from God.

‘We said that we were going to take care of him, give him a very good education as far as we can. I was going to try to save some money for him so that he can go to university. I wanted the best for him.

‘We want to stay with him not only for one hour a day but I want to stay and look at him. I want to change his nappy. I want to give him his food. I will do anything.

‘We didn’t do this to harm Matys, to do something wrong. We did it to help him to get a better life. I just don’t know what is going to happen to him now.

‘It is true we didn’t do it the right way but we didn’t want to deceive anyone. For us it was Matys, it’s not like we did it for some kind of return, to claim some benefits.’

Puneet Rai, defending Mr Miessan, said: ‘From the outset he has been open and honest about what had occurred.

‘He was at pains emphasising the joy this child had brought to them.’

Christopher Harding, defending Mrs Miessan, said: ‘Because of the failure of the IVF treatment this was in effect an act of desperation.

‘They have now already suffered by the loss of this child.’