The Australian parents of baby Gammy are to appear on television to give their 'side of the story' in the surrogacy saga that has made headlines all over the world.
David and Wendy Farnell will appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday (August 10) to talk about the events surrounding the birth of their twins via a surrogate mother in Thailand earlier this year.
In a statement via the 60 Minutes programme, the couple ask 'Australia to hear their side of the story before passing judgment on them'.
The couple have been sought by the Western Australian Department of Child Protection since it was revealed that David Farnell, 56, is a convicted paedophile.
In the late 1990s, Mr Farnell was convicted of 22 child sex offences, committed while he was in his 20s, including one against a girl who was just seven.
Mr Farnell was sentenced to three years jail in 1997 for sexually molesting two girls in 'secretive meetings' in his shed or house, in 1982 and 1983, when the girls were aged seven and 10.
It wasn't until the women were adults that they made complaints and court documents said the women had suffered 'depression' and 'difficulty forming relationships' as a result of the abuse.
The Farnells' interview with 60 Minutes will come just days after one of Mr Farnell's adult children – a son from his previous marriage – spoke out in defence of his father, saying that the family had not been able to tell their side of the story for legal reasons.
He told the Sydney Morning Herald that it was 'heartbreaking' his father's dark past was being revisited. He said: "He's taken 10 years to get his life back on track and he did and he has done so well and this, this has been shattering."
Pattaramon Chanbua, Gammy's surrogate mother, claims the Farnells, from Bunbury in Western Australia, didn't want seven-month-old baby Gammy when they found out he had Down's syndrome and took only his twin sister.
The Farnells initially claimed their daughter, whom they admitted was the same age as Gammy and had been born through a Thai surrogate, did not have a twin brother.
They later said they had known about the twin, but were told he only had a day to live and they should say their goodbyes to the baby before they left the country, due to civil unrest.
The couple also wanted to make it known that they have been cooperating with the Department of Child Protection since Wednesday morning and will continue to cooperate with them.
60 Minutes Executive Producer Tom Malone said that 'no money has been or will be paid' to the Farnells for their interview, but that 60 Minutes would be making a donation to the charity Hands Across the Water, which is raising money for Gammy's medical treatment and care.