text: Gammy, a baby born with Down's Syndrome, is held by his surrogate mother Pattaramon Janbua at a hospital in Chonburi province August 3, 2014. 
   
   SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Australian biological parents of twins caught up in a surrogacy scandal in Thailand wanted both babies but the surrogate mother threatened to involve the police and they feared she would keep both children, they said on Sunday. 
   
   David and Wendy Farnell were speaking publicly for the first time since the story broke more than a week ago of 7-month-old baby Gammy, who has Down's syndrome and is being cared for by his surrogate mother in Thailand. 
   
   The couple told Australian television they felt they had little choice but to leave Thailand with Gammy's healthy sister. 
   
   "We wanted to bring him with us," David Farnell, 56, told the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes program. 
   
   They returned to Australia with Gammy’s sister Pipah as the surrogate mother Pattaramon Janbua had told them “if we try to take our little boy, she’s going to get the police and she’s going to come and take our little girl… and she’s going to keep both of the babies,” he said. 
   
   The couple have been criticized for apparently rejecting the boy, who also has a hole in his heart and is being treated for a lung infection in a Thai hospital. 
   
   60 Minutes said the couple were not paid for the interview. 
   
   Pattaramon said doctors, the surrogate agency and the baby’s parents had known that Gammy was disabled when she was four months pregnant but had not told her until the seventh month. 
   
   She said she had feared she would be asked to abort him but would have refused due to her Buddhist beliefs. 
   
   The Farnells said they were angry that the agency had not told them about the boy's condition until too late in the pregnancy to safely abort. 
   
   They said they want the baby. 
   
   The case has drawn international attention to the lack of regulation of international surrogacy and sparked calls in Australia for an overhaul of laws to cut the number of couples traveling abroad for surrogates. 
   
   Public outrage intensified last week when it became known that David Farnell was jailed in 1997 for sex offences involving three girls aged under 13. 
   
   "I have been convicted of child sex offences and I hang my head in shame for that," he told 60 Minutes, adding that he had reformed and was no longer a risk to children. 
   
   As commercial surrogacy is outlawed in Australia many couples turn to clinics in Thailand and India. 
   
   Thailand has no clear legal framework for surrogacy. Commercial surrogacy is barred by the Medical Council of Thailand but non-profit surrogacy is permitted for blood relatives, and exceptions are permitted on a case-by-case basis. 
   
   A draft law banning commercial surrogacy in Thailand has been submitted to the military government, an official of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry said on Thursday. 
   
   The Australian government has asked the Thai authorities to allow for the completion of any current commercial surrogate arrangements before introducing changes. 
   
   Hands Across the Water, an Australian-run children's charity based in Thailand, will administer the more than A$241,000 ($224,000) raised so far in an online public appeal for Gammy’s medical treatment and care. 
   
   (Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney and Morag McKinnon in Perth; Editing by Lynne O'Donnell) ||||| The biological father accused of abandoning a baby because he was born with Down's syndrome has said he would have terminated the surrogate pregnancy had he known sooner about the boy's condition. 
   
   A surrogate mother in Thailand gave birth to twins for David and Wendy Farnell. 
   
   The girl, Pipah, was healthy and came back to Western Australia with the couple but the boy, named Gammy, was born with the disability and remains in the surrogate's care. 
   
   Speaking on Channel 9's 60 Minutes programme, Mr Farnell said: "No parent wants a son with a disability. 
   
   "It was late into the pregnancy that we learned the boy had Down's. They sent us the reports but they didn't do the checks early enough." 
   
   Pattaramon Chanbua, baby Gammy's Thai surrogate mother 
   
   He denies asking the surrogate mother at any time to have an abortion. 
   
   Accused of ditching the boy, the couple have found themselves at the centre of an international scandal. 
   
   "It has been very distressing and we miss our little boy," said Mr Farnell. 
   
   "I come home from work some days and Wendy has dressed our little girl all in blue. She wants to still remember our little boy." 
   
   They say that rather than abandoning Gammy the Thai surrogate, 21-year-old Pattaramon Chanbua, refused to let him go. 
   
   Ms Chanbua says the boy's biological parents rejected him 
   
   "She said if we tried to take our little boy she's going to get the police and she's going to come and take our little girl," said Mr Farnell. 
   
   His wife added the whole episode made them both "very, very stressed". 
   
   For more than a week Ms Chanbua has repeatedly painted the Farnells as heartless. 
   
   To complicate matters further, Mr Farnell has 22 convictions for sexually abusing girls, one as young as five years old. 
   
   "There is no reason to be concerned. I'm not going to harm my little girl," he told the interviewer when pressed on whether his daughter would be safe in his care. 
   
   Asked if the couple understood why many think they are the most hated couple in Australia, he replied: "I can understand that. For one, thinking that we have abandoned our little boy, it's a terrible thing. 
   
   Gammy's twin sister lives with their biological parents in Australia 
   
   "And then to have me as a sex offender. Everybody hates sex offenders ... that's why I've tried so hard and want to be a good father to my children so people can see that I'm a good person now because I did this bad thing a long time ago." 
   
   Worldwide attention generated by the story has led to almost £150,000 being raised to help pay for Gammy's medical costs. 
   
   It has also highlighted the disturbing nature of Thailand's surrogacy industry. 
   
   Thailand is preparing to fast-track legislation to outlaw commercial surrogacy, banning agencies acting as brokers, or accepting financial or other benefits. 
   
   Advertising for women to act as surrogates for commercial purposes would also be illegal. 
   
   Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has called on the Thai government to allow a transitional period before the ban, to enable Australians to receive children still being carried by surrogates. ||||| Thai surrogate baby Gammy: Australian parents 'wanted him' 
   
   Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. 
   
   Continue reading the main story Related Stories 
   
   The Australian couple accused of abandoning a baby born with Down's syndrome to a Thai surrogate mother say they wanted to take him home. 
   
   David and Wendy Farnell, speaking publicly for the first time, insisted the Thai mother would not hand over Gammy, now seven months old. 
   
   The couple, who took Gammy's twin sister, say they want to get him back. 
   
   The surrogate mother originally said the couple deliberately left Gammy behind because of his disabilities. 
   
   But in an interview with the Associated Press on Sunday, Pattharamon Chanbua, 21, appeared to backtrack, saying: "I did not allow Gammy to go back with them - that's the truth. It is because they would have taken Gammy back and put him in an institute." 
   
   In an emotional interview on Australia's Channel Nine on Sunday, David Farnell said: "We did not abandon our son. 
   
   "(Pattharamon) said that if we tried to take our little boy, she's going to get the police and she's going to try and take our little girl and she's going to keep both of the babies." 
   
   He added: "The surrogate mother - it is her choice if she wants to give you the baby or not give you the baby. Although you have a surrogacy agreement, it really doesn't mean anything. It is her decision, and our surrogate mother said that she wanted to keep the baby boy." 
   
   An online campaign has raised tens of thousands of pounds to help Pattharamon Chanbua with Gammy's medical expenses. 
   
   The case took an even darker twist when it emerged that David Farnell had been convicted in the 1990s of multiple sex offences against young girls. 
   
   He insisted on Sunday that his daughter, Pipah, was not at risk of harm from him. 
   
   "I will do everything in the world to protect my little girl," he said. 
   
   "I have no inclination of doing anything like this. I don't have any thoughts about this at all. That is the 100% truth. I cannot do this again." 
   
   Officials say they have contacted the couple, but have no major concerns at present. 
   
   'Anger at agency' 
   
   Pattharamon Chanbua, who has two other children, said the couple had asked her to have an abortion when she was told of the baby boy's condition four months after becoming pregnant. 
   
   She said she refused, as it was against her Buddhist beliefs. Abortion on the grounds of foetal impairment is illegal in Thailand. 
   
   David Farnell denied asking the mother to have an abortion but said they were angry that the surrogacy agency had not conducted tests earlier because by the time they found out about the baby's condition, it was too late in the pregnancy to abort the foetus. 
   
   Had they known earlier, he said, they probably would have terminated the pregnancy. 
   
   "I don't think any parent wants a son with a disability," he said. "Parents want their children to be healthy and happy." 
   
   David Farnell said that was when Pattharamon Chanbua offered to keep Gammy. 
   
   "We were thinking, oh, maybe this might be OK," he said. 
   
   But when the babies were born, he added, he and his wife realised they wanted to keep both. 
   
   He said the surrogate mother then insisted she be allowed to keep Gammy, and threatened to keep Pipah as well. 
   
   Besides Down's syndrome, Gammy has a congenital heart condition and a lung infection.
target: – With their case making international headlines, the Australian parents of baby Gammy are telling their story. Speaking to Australia's 9News, David Farnell said he and his wife, Wendy, "wanted" to take Gammy home with them, Reuters reports—but his surrogate mother wouldn't let them. Surrogate Pattaramon Chanbua "said if we tried to take our little boy, she's going to get the police and she's going to come and take our little girl," Farnell said, via Sky News, referring to Gammy's twin sister. Earlier, the BBC notes, the Farnells told reporters they hadn't known about Gammy at all. In other moments from the interview: David Farnell also says the couple would likely have sought to terminate the pregnancy if they'd known earlier that Gammy had Down Syndrome, Sky News reports. "It was late into the pregnancy that we learned the boy had Down's," Farnell says, noting that "no parent wants a son with a disability." Farnell acknowledged his convictions for child sex abuse; 9News notes that he was convicted of abusing four girls, ages five to 10, over a decade. He spent three years in jail. "I’ve been convicted of child sex offenses and I hang my head in shame," he said. "Everybody hates sex offenders," he noted, per Sky. "That's why I've tried so hard and want to be a good father to my children, so people can see that I'm a good person now because I did this bad thing a long time ago."