London: Four obese children are on the brink of being permanently removed from their family by social workers after their parents failed to bring their weight under control.
In the first case of its kind, their mother and father now face what they call the "unbearable" likelihood of never seeing them again. Their three daughters, aged 11, seven and one, and five-year-old son, will either be "fostered without contact" or adopted.
Either way, the family's only hope of being reunited will be if the children attempt to track down their parents when they become adults.
The couple, who have been married for nearly 20 years and are not being named to protect their children's identities, were given a "draconian" ultimatum three years ago.
Warned that the children must slim or be placed in care, the family spent two years living in a council-funded ‘Big Brother' house in which they were constantly supervised and the food they ate monitored.
But despite subjecting them to intense scrutiny, social workers did not impose rules on what food the children should eat, and there was apparently little or no improvement.
News of the decision to remove them was broken to the couple on Tuesday. Critics called it a disgraceful breach of human rights and a chilling example of the power of the state to meddle in family life.
In an emotional interview, the 42-year-old mother said: "We might not be the perfect parents, but we love our children with all our hearts. To face a future where we will never see them again is unbearable."
