Gammy was born to a surrogate mother in Thailand last year and made international headlines when his biological parents, David Farnell, a convicted sex offender, and his wife Wendy Li abandoned him but took his twins sister – who was not born with Down Syndrome – home with them to Australia.
Now Peter Baines, the founder of the Hands Across The Water foundation, the charity set up to help Gammy, told the ABC that he had become aware of applications Mr Farnell has made to access the raised money.
“It’s perplexing. I don’t understand it on any level,” Mr Baines said.
“The funds were donated by everyone because of the alleged actions of Mr Farnell, and to think he believes he has some right of claim over it … I find it perplexing.”
After hearing of the child’s plight more than 6,000 people dug deep to donate about $235,000 for Gammy. The money is intended for the boy’s surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua to use the funds to raise Gammy and cover his medical costs.
Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua has been looking after Gammy since his biological parents left for Australia without him.
While it is unclear how much money Mr Farnell was seeking Mr Baines says his organisation intends to make sure that the money raised goes to benefit Gammy.
“We’ve taken all steps we can as a charity to ensure that 100 per cent of those funds that we donated go directly to Gammy now and for the future.”
The charity funds have been used to buy Gammy’s adoptive Thai family a new home to live in with him and cover his ongoing medical costs.
Ms Chanbua spoke to the ABC about Mr Farnell’s alleged attempts to access the funds and told the new outlet she thought he had “gone insane”.
“He does not deserve or have any rights to the fund as he abandoned Gammy in the first place,” Ms Chanbua said.
“People donated money for Gammy and not for anyone else. Even though I am Gammy’s mother, I don’t have any right to take it.”
Mr Baines also echoed Ms Chanbua’s sentiments that the money was purely for Gammy.
He commented that the outpouring of donations may not have happened if anyone thought Mr Farnell would ever have any access to the money, saying, “We’ll do all we can to prevent that.”
