Mother dumps children for toy boy

A mother-of-six abandoned her children to social workers to live with her 14-year-old son's best friend.

Debbie Mallinson, 36, has moved in with lover Adam Caban, 18, leaving her four youngest children in foster care, while the two eldest stay with family members.

Unmarried Miss Mallinson has six children - aged three to 14 years old - by four fathers, according to one of her previous partners.

She is said to have fled her semi-detached council house two weeks ago after her eldest son overheard her declaring her love for his teenage friend on the phone.

Miss Mallinson told her shocked children: 'I can't help who I fall in love with'.

She then fled by climbing out of a window and ran to a waiting taxi to make her getaway to stay with Mr Caban's sister.

But despite her passionate antics her unlikely Romeo still lists his relationship status as 'single' on social networking site Bebo.

On his webpage the keen rugby player boasts he is 'happiest' when out with his friends on the town, and 'with sum1 special u no hu u r!'.

His lists his interests as 'gettin twisted on the wekeends' while he listens to rap and hip hop music.

The couple are staying with Mr Caban's older sister in a house close to his mother's home in Falmouth, Cornwall, while Miss Mallinson's three-bedroom pebble-dashed semi-detached council house stands empty - left with prams and children's toys scattered across the garden lawn.

They have been in the seaside town enjoying the sun while strolling hand-in-hand.

But while the couple enjoy the first flush of love, Miss Mallinson's deserted children have been forced to leave their home. Their mother is understood to have phoned social services to say she could not cope and was leaving the children.

Her 14-year-old son is staying with his grandparents and his ten-year-old brother has moved in with his father. But the four youngest children - a girl aged eight, a boy of six, a boy aged five, and a three-year-old girl - have been put into foster care.

Former partner Dylan Wilkes, 27, whose daughters - aged eight and three - are now in care, said Miss Mallinson was a 'disgrace' for deserting her young family.

Mr Wilkes, who is fighting for custody of his daughters said: 'It doesn't surprise me that she has done this - it isn't the first time she has gone for a younger man. She started seeing Adam about six months ago, he was staying in her house because he was friends with her son, and that was when they got together.

'Debbie is horrible. The kids are better off in care than with her, in my opinion. All she cares about is herself - she has just run off with her son's best friend.

'The eldest son has had lots of hassle about it at school. The whole thing is just unbelievable.

'She falls in love more often than she gives birth.'

Mr Wilkes, who has known the mother-of-six for six years after they met in a pub, said he has not been in contact with his children much recently.

'We had two children together, but I haven't been able to see them much as I've been working and living in Amsterdam. I got back about a month ago, and now I'm back I want to get custody of them.'

But Miss Mallinson is understood to want to secure custody of the children and raise them with her new lover.

He said: 'She said to social services she wants the kids back eventually and wants to bring them up with her new boyfriend.

'But they are living with his sister and don't have any money.

Mallinson was unavailable for comment.

Adam also refused to comment when he was approached at his family's address.

But his mother Paula said: 'He's 18 and can do what he likes. They're just friends anyway.'

His father Charles, who also lives in the area, yesterday said he knew about his relationship with the mother-of-six - but said his son had to learn by his own mistakes.

He said he tried to stop his son from seeing the 36-year-old but with no success.

Speaking from outside his home he said Mallinson's behaviour was 'sick' and that he felt sorry for her children.

He said: 'I knew he had been carrying on with that woman and he knows what I think about it.

'But that's what boys are like. I think it's disgusting what she's done to her kids. It's sick.'

Mr Caban, who has since re-married after splitting with Adam's mother, has moved just 100 yards down the road.

He added: 'It's her kids I feel sorry for. They're the innocent ones in all this.

'But Adam is going to have to make his own mistakes and learn from them.'