US reunion for Beale and parents

Caroline Beale, who is awaiting trial in the United States for murdering her newborn baby, was reunited with her parents yesterday.

It was the first time the family had been together since Miss Beale, 32, was granted bail last month. She had been arrested in September when her daughter's body was found beneath her coat as she tried to board an aircraft for London.

Daphne and Peter Beale travelled from the family home in Chingford, east London, for the reunion in New York.

Miss Beale, a civil servant with the Department of Health in London, is charged with second degree murder despite claiming she had suffered trauma and that the baby had been stillborn in the bathroom of her hotel suite.

She was kept in the notorious Riker's Island prison while supporters campaigned for her to be released on bail.

She faces 15 years in jail if convicted. The hearing is due to go ahead next month after psychological assessments.

Miss Beale told GMTV yesterday: "It's absolutely wonderful to see them. We've been apart for far too long. I'm feeling a lot more positive and a lot stronger within. To survive something like this you have to find some inner strength to deal with things."

Mr Beale said his daughter was fragile but her mental state had improved since leaving prison.

"She has been loved back to being her whole self by the people she is with in New York. It is something to behold the way these people care for Caroline."