Gynaecologist arrested after 'selling teenage mother's baby' for €25,000

An Italian gynaecologist has been arrested after allegedly selling a teenage mother's newborn baby to a childless couple for €25,000.

Named as Andrea Cozzolino by the Naples newspaper Il Mattino, the doctor allegedly persuaded the teenage girl to not go ahead with a late-term abortion, but to instead give birth at his private clinic in the southern Italian city of Caserta in October 2011. Cozzolino reportedly said he would help the baby find a new home and prevent any trace of the child's origin.

However, when the girl found out that the baby had been registered in her own family's name she made a complaint to police, after which details of the transaction emerged.

The couple who are alleged to have bought the child, named locally as Carmela Giordano and Elio Miranda, have been ordered to report to police.

The girl is now under investigation herself for violating Italy's adoption and fostering laws after she had the baby removed from the couple and placed in an orphanage.