According to his father, Leo was abandoned by his mother because her family were ashamed of his condition.
According to his father, Leo was abandoned by his mother because her family were ashamed of his condition.
A father who claims his wife rejected their newborn son because he had Down's Syndrome has four New Zealand children from a previous marriage who he has not seen for years.
Samuel Forrest, who has links to the Exclusive Brethren in Wanganui, hit headlines across the world last week after he started a fundraising campaign to bring himself and son Leo to his native New Zealand.
Mr Forrest claimed his Armenian wife Ruzan Badalyan left him a week after baby Leo was born on January 21 because he refused to give him up to an orphanage. Her family were ashamed of his Down's Syndrome, he said, claiming she would not touch or even look at her son.
However, she recently hit back saying she knew Leo would have a better life in New Zealand where the condition isn't stigmatised as it is in her native Armenia.
It has now emerged that Mr Forrest has four other children with his first wife. He has not seen them in four years, since he was expelled from the Exclusive Brethren church in Wanganui, the Daily Mail newspaper said.
It is believed Mr Forrest was ex-communicated from the church he was brought up in after divorcing his wife, preventing all contact with his family, including his own parents.
In a series of emails dating to 2011 - which have been seen by NZME. News Service - Mr Forrest says he "lost 4 innocent children" in a "deliberate break-up of a family".
He married Ms Badalyan 18 months ago, but they filed for divorce a week after Leo was born.
Armenian culture believes a child with a condition such as Down's Syndrome brings shame on the family, Mr Forrest said.
In a new post on his crowdfunding website, he said he hoped "Leo's legacy to his Armenian heritage" would be to help bring a "better understanding of how to cope with newborns and children with special needs".
"I can assure you that I have tried my best to convince my wife we could keep the baby, but in her family, an orphanage seemed a safer option for Armenia," he posted on his GoFundMe page.
"I did everything I could to keep our family together, including suggesting we all go to New Zealand together. Her family also spent time trying to persuade me to surrender our son to an orphanage.
"However, Ruzan should not be the target of all of the frustrations that this situation has created. Our paths may be moving in different directions, but she is Leo's mother and I still feel a great deal of love for her.
"She and many like her are the victims of the social norms in Armenia. My hope is that through raising awareness we will be able to change things for the better."
He thanked people for the "outpouring of kind emotions and great wishes", saying they had been "overwhelming". More than $640,000 has already been raised to support baby Leo.
On Sunday, Ms Badalyan said she had been forced to make a "ruthless" decision in the hours after Leo was born. She knew Leo wouldn't be accepted in society in Armenia and she wouldn't have enough money to support him, she said.
"[I] realised that only a move to a country with such standards as New Zealand would entitle my son to a decent life," she said in a Facebook post.
"After that incident, he [Mr Forrest] left the hospital notifying me hours later that he was taking the kid with him, that he is going to leave the country for New Zealand and I do not have anything to do with the situation."
