Max's adoptive parents have said they will not comment.

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Cornwall Council said it understood fully "how hard it must be for people who are not approved as prospective adoptive parents".

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Now living in Rugby, in the English Midlands, he describes Bethany as a "place of hell", but not as bad as the home of the dysfunctional adoptive parents in County Wicklow he was sent to when he was nearly four.

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But some adopted children have said they would rather not know their origins, especially if the information implicates their adoptive parents in illegal acts.

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