Child Selling

Los Angeles police on Thursday appealed for the public's help to find a man who approached nannies on two separate occasions at a San Fernando Valley park and asked to purchase babies in their care. Both incidents took place this week at Encino Park (also known as Genesta Park) near Genesta Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, said Lt. Paul Vernon of the Los Angeles Police Department. "This type of behavior is quite unusual," Vernon said. "We'd like to identify this man as quickly as possible."

The eerie pencil outline of Cheng Ying, done by her father one night last summer before she went to sleep, remains on the wall above the bed. Her parents haven't seen the 6-year-old since they sent her off to school dressed in a black-and-white-checked coat two months ago. The school was no help in finding her, they say. The police weren't either, even refusing to fill out a missing person's report.

A lawyer representing a Louisiana woman accused of swapping two children for an exotic bird and $175 in cash says the charge is false. Attorney Timmy Fontenot says Donna Greenwell did not try to sell the 5-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl but was trying to find them a good home after their mother placed them in her care about a year ago. Greenwell, a trucker from the small town of Pitkin, is jailed on $100,000 bond. The children are in state custody. Charges against Greenwell and the couple who allegedly bought the children have been reduced from aggravated kidnapping to "sale of minor children."

Four people, including a U.S. citizen and a legal permanent American resident, have been arrested here and charged with child selling after two of them allegedly offered $5,000 to a father in exchange for his 3-year-old son, police said Saturday.

CHINA A court convicted 52 members of a baby-trafficking gang, sentencing them to death or life in prison. The ring was based in the city of Yulin in the southern region of Guangxi, one of China's poorest areas. The case included a highly publicized incident in March in which 28 female infants, all younger than 3 months, were found in nylon tote bags aboard a long-distance bus, according to the New China News Agency. The convictions highlighted the scale of China's black market in babies.

Kenneth Parnell, the child molester who became infamous after kidnapping and sexually torturing Steven Stayner in the 1970s, was arrested in Berkeley on Friday night in a police sting operation after allegedly trying buy a child. Berkeley police said a tip led them to Parnell's home, but offered no further details. "We became aware of his desire to purchase a child ... and we intervened," said police Lt. Dennis Ahearn.

The arrest of one of California's most notorious child molesters occurred after a Berkeley home health worker told police the elderly man she was caring for asked her to help him buy a 4-year-old boy, authorities said. Due to prior offenses, Kenneth Parnell, 71, who was arrested Friday, faces the possibility of life in prison under California's three-strikes law, said Clint Ojala, an investigator with the Alameda County district attorney's office.

In a pair of jailhouse interviews, a 71-year-old man accused by Berkeley police of trying to buy a 4-year-old boy told two newspapers that he wanted to "raise him just like any child." The San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News interviewed Kenneth Parnell, who served five years in prison in the 1980s for kidnapping two other young boys, on Wednesday at the Santa Rita Jail. Parnell acknowledged that his attempt to buy a child had been inappropriate but said he simply sought affection.

An Irvine woman once accused of running an international baby-selling operation pleaded guilty Thursday to a single count of wire fraud and has agreed to a 21-month prison term and fines. Marianne Gati, 54, made international headlines when federal authorities alleged that she had arranged the sale of as many as 30 Hungarian infants, some for as much as $80,000. The plea marks the end of a seven-year legal battle in which prosecutors struggled to build a baby-selling case against Gati.

An Irvine woman once accused of running an international baby-selling operation was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison for wire fraud and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines. Marianne Gati, 54, said only, "Thank you," when U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler let her address the court. It was a quiet ending to a seven-year battle in which prosecutors struggled to build a baby-selling case.