London – Police officers escorted the African child being adopted by Madonna off a British Airways flight today, whisking him past photographers hoping to get a glimpse of the boy as he made his way to the pop star’s home.
One-year-old David Banda was carried off the Boeing 747 and into the arms of a woman who covered his head with a light gray coat.
Three armed police officers together with airline and airport officials escorted the party through Heathrow’s Terminal 1 to the baggage hall. From there they were taken out of a back door and put into a silver Mercedes minivan.
The pop star and her husband, Guy Ritchie, were not seen at the airport with the child, who wore denim shorts, a white T-shirt and a baseball cap.
The boy left his native Malawi as human rights and child protection groups said they would go to court today to challenge the speedy court decision awarding Madonna temporary custody of the child.
Liz Rosenberg, Madonna’s publicist in New York, said the child was issued a passport and a visa Monday.
“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. “It is expected that the family will be reunited in the next few days.” Rosenberg declined to say when and where the family would be reunited.
David 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.
Human rights groups are concerned child protection regulations may have been swept aside to benefit a singer who has been generous to the impoverished, AIDS-stricken southern African nation.
The Malawi High Court granted preliminary custody to Madonna and Ritchie last week, waiving a law that requires would-be parents to live in the country for a year while social welfare officers investigate their ability to care for a child.
Madonna’s charity, Raising Malawi, is setting up an orphanage in the country for some of the 1 million AIDS orphans in Malawi.
