'Stolen baby', 54, meets his real mum – who never realised he was alive

Victims of the so-called 'stolen babies' scandal, which went on between the 1930s and 1990s, the man took a DNA test and traced his mother, now 77.

At the time of his birth in Valencia in 1964, his parents, who were 23, had a four-year-old daughter and were married, but were told by the nuns who worked as nurses, as well as their doctor, that the infant had been born dead.

In many near-identical cases, the mother was unmarried and the baby was taken off her because she was considered 'loose' and undeserving, but in others, the children were simply sold to families who could not have offspring of their own, taken from completely random couples.

During General Franco's dictatorship, many of the babies thought to be stolen were taken from poorer families or from those known to be Republican supporters, or dissenters.

Lawyer Enrique Vila, working for several families affected by the 'stolen baby' racket, said the Valencia man's parents had gone on to have three more children and never suspected their son might be alive and living with an adopted family.

“In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, it was very common for everyone to believe what they were told by doctors and by the nuns who worked as auxiliary nurses in public hospitals,” Vila explains.

“For this reason, many women did not investigate further, nor did they concern themselves with checking that the death certificates for their babies were genuine, neither did they become suspicious when their children were buried.”

Some parents were given their 'babies' in a coffin, and although many in hindsight realise this was very lightweight and may have been empty, many others were so full of grief that they did not look inside.

“Taking advantage of the credibility that the Church, and the medical profession, enjoyed at the time, many cases of deception were easy enough to carry out unnoticed, as we are starting to see now,” Vila continues.

“But we have to keep in mind the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' and we cannot go round accusing or blaming any institution, religious or public, without proof.

“The fact here is that a woman believed her son had died 54 years ago and has now met him, alive, and been able to hold him in her arms for the first time.”

The photograph shows members of the National Association for Victims of Illegal Adoptions (ANADIR) in a demonstration outside the State prosecution headquarters.