The grandparents of two children in Scotland adopted by a same-sex couple have been denied access to them for three 
years.
The grandparents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, say they were prevented from continuing to care for the youngsters because they were deemed ‘too old’ to care for them. However the City of Edinburgh Council denies that this was the case.
The couple were aged 61 and 46 when the children were removed by social workers in Edinburgh, where they lived, and placed with a homosexual couple instead.
City of Edinburgh Council social worker Heather Rush told the grandparents around the time of the adoption that they would not be allowed to see the children again if they did not give their blessing to the controversial move.
The grandparents, who raised seven children of their own and cared for the children almost from their birth until the boy was five and his sister was four, claim promises of contact were broken, the Daily Mail reports.
They were the de facto parents of their grandchildren because their daughter, the children’s mother, was a drug addict.
The grandparents from Perthshire have spoken of their on-going torment, after the Scottish Government unveiled plans on Tuesday for grandparents to get sweeping new legal rights to bring up their grandchildren.
The grandfather said: “Those children were everything to me. They were rays of sunshine in the life of my family and when they were taken away we felt we’d lost everything.
“People always think that sorrow fades with time but I can promise you it doesn’t. I still go upstairs at night to find my wife in tears and I’m not much better.
“It’s affected my health badly. Four weeks ago I had a stroke and I am in no doubt that the stress of our lives being torn apart was behind it.’
At the time, they say they were told they were considered too old to be parents to the children of their heroin addict daughter, even though the children were happy with them.
Although the grandfather was approaching retirement age, he was fit and well and still doing heavy manual work as a farmhand.
His 49-year-old wife said last night: “We are glad to hear the Scottish Government has listened to what we believe the majority of the public wants and is recognising the rights and the vital role of grandparents.
“We’d like it to make a difference to our situation but it’s too late for that now. Our grandson turned nine in July and his little sister will be eight in December, and obviously we hope and pray they are well and settled.
“We wouldn’t disrupt them again even if the law gave us the right to do it as it wouldn’t be in their interests, but we would hope any new legislation would enshrine our rights to reasonable contact with them.
“We were told when they were taken away that the couple adopting them would be happy to let us have contact.
“After speaking to the Mail to raise awareness of our loss, we were effectively ‘punished’ and told trust had been breached and it would be a year before the couple would consider whether we could be trusted.
In May 2009, Edinburgh council bosses admitted that mistakes were made in the way they dealt with the grandparents and apologised after two highly disturbing phone calls between the couple and social worker Mrs Rush.
In the first, she told them they would not be allowed to see the children if they did not give their blessing to the controversial gay adoption.
In the second, which came the day the grandparents went public with their story, Mrs Rush allegedly told the children’s mother her parents would never see them again.
A council spokesman said: “Decisions about contact are based only on the well-being and best interests of the children. In this case it was made very clear to the family at the time of the adoption placement that there would be no direct contact.”