STEVE Hampson held his wife Patricia's hand as they gazed at little Jonathan on the packed passenger plane.

After nearly two years of torment, the couple were finally on their way home to Darwen with the Guatemalan boy they had battled to adopt legally.

"We looked at each other and we were really in tears," said Steve, 40. "And that was when the penny dropped. We knew he was finally ours."

Desperate to have a child, Steve and Pat, 34, shunned Guatemalan baby sellers after first seeing Jonathan 20 months ago.

The deal had been set up by an adoption ring which included a British social worker, a US baby business banned in two states and a Guatemalan lawyer.

For £15,000 they were told he could have been theirs straight away, with no questions asked - but with the help of television programme The Cook Report they set about exposing the baby-for-sale scandal in Central America and adopting Jonathan legally. Last night the couple arrived at Manchester Airport with their new son and were today starting the process of introducing him to the British way of life.

Steve added: "People say it's brave. I just think that what we've done is that we've helped to protect the rights of the birth mother and the rights of hundreds of children in Guatemala.

"We could not have lived with ourselves knowing we had adopted Jonathan illegally.

"There are those who have taken that route who have been quite hostile towards us.

"The people who have helped us know who they are. This is the happy ending we always wanted."

Family friend Benice Booth, who also lives in Darwen, and Cook Report producer/director Clive Entwistle will now be godparents. Steve and Pat married 15 years ago after meeting through a mutual friend but were unable to have children of their own.

They first saw Jonathan - full name Jonathan Manuel Pineda Vasqueth Hampson - when he was six weeks old and have supported him at a Guatemalan orphanage ever since.

He is already learning to switch from Spanish to English with the help of his new parents, who carefully replace words like "pan" with "bread".

And his belated Christmas will be his best yet, with heaps of presents his mum and dad bought before travelling to collect him.

"It would be easier to say what he hasn't got for Christmas," said Steve.

Pat, who has already warmed to motherhood, looked at her son in Manchester Airport's arrivals lounge and simply said: "He's gorgeous."

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