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The estranged wife of convicted double murderer Scott Watson has done a deal with Child Youth and Family to foster the newborn baby of notorious prison escaper Arthur Taylor.
The deal, which is expected to receive final signoff from CYF in the next few days, will see 38-year-old Coral Watson assume the role of official caregiver while the child's parents, Arthur and Carolyn Taylor, serve out their prison sentences.
The 4-month-old child is in the care of the state and for legal reasons cannot be identified. Watson, 38, already has four children of her own, Robert, Kirsty-Anne, Scott and Odette, by several different fathers. Two of the children have serious ongoing medical issues. A fifth child, a 17-year-old girl, also resides with Watson in Christchurch.
The Taylor baby was apparently conceived from frozen sperm smuggled out of Rimutaka Prison by a prison officer. According to 51-year-old Taylor, it was then inseminated into his wife Carolyn, who was on bail at the time for charges relating to the armed ambush of prison officers in March 2005. She is serving a 26-month sentence at Auckland Women's Corrections Facility.
Taylor - who has two other children, 15-year-old Tyrone and 3-year-old Kane - has several convictions for escaping from custody, and is one of the few men to ever escape from Paremoremo prison.
Taylor told the Herald on Sunday that like any parent he wanted the best for his child, but with him and his wife behind bars they were not in a position to provide their daughter with the care she needed.
Watson, whom he had known for many years, had agreed to foster the child and he and Carolyn couldn't be happier, he said. "We know Coral will give her a loving, stable environment. She is a wonderful mother."
Watson said she had devoted her life to her children and had no difficulty with the prospect of raising another.
"I will be raising this child forever and ever. She has the right to have a good home, she told the Herald on Sunday.
"I just want to give her a loving home. I hate the thought of her getting lost in the system. I'm just a big kid at heart and am of the opinion that every child deserves somewhere they can call home," she said.
She had been through a rigorous vetting process and had met all CYF criteria. "I have no convictions. I am clean. Their top man put me through the hoops and there was no problems at all."
CYF caregiver checks include police and medical checks, and two referees' reports. Potential caregivers are also interviewed by social workers who assess their suitability to care for children and young people.
Watson (nee Branch) married Scott Watson in a highly publicised service at Paremoremo Prison in May 2004 after being introduced to him five years earlier through a mutual friend. The marriage has never been consummated. She split from Watson earlier this year after allegations he was "two-timing" her with a woman he met behind bars.
Watson was jailed in September 1999 for the murders of Ben Smart, 21, and Olivia Hope, 17, who disappeared in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year's Eve 1997. He is not eligible for parole until 2015.
A spokesman for Child Youth and Family Minister Ruth Dyson declined to comment about Watson fostering the Taylor baby, saying it was a day-to-day administrative matter and not something she would have sign-off on.
A CYF spokesperson also declined to comment on the specifics of the Watson case, but said decisions such as this were always made "in the best interests of the child - and that all caregivers went through a "rigorous screening process".
