A Catholic-run home in Northern Ireland has been accused of 'illegal' cross-border adoptions after allegations emerged it had shipped babies overseas against their mother's will.

Marianvale mother and baby home in Newry was the subject of an investigation by the BBC's File on 4 which found one woman was given three different birth certificates from three separate countries, some of which contained false information.

The home in County Down operated between 1955 and 1984 and offered unmarried mothers somewhere they could put their children up for adoption.

However the BBC investigation heard that some adoptions were not voluntary and that details for birth certificates were forged to allow the children to be adopted overseas.

Karen, 49, is now an English teacher in New York, and was the centre of the investigation. She was born in 1968 and believes she was moved illegally from Marianvale to the Republic of Ireland before being taken to Texas and adopted by a couple who were too old to legally adopt in the US.

'They died when I was a teenager and that was going to have an effect on anybody's life,' she told the BBC.

'And the fact that their health and age was overlooked because of the desire of the people who ran the orphanage, I don't think is justifiable or acceptable.'

Karen has three birth certificates, one with her correct details registering her as being born in Northern Ireland. But another was issued two days earlier in the Republic of Ireland containing false information, including changing her date and place of birth and listed her future adopted parents as her natural parents.

She was then registered a third time by her adopted parents when she arrived in the USA.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd denied they had conducted any illegal adoptions.

'We utterly reject any suggestion that illegal adoptions were conducted from Marianvale,' a statement to the BBC said.

'All adoptions were conducted strictly in accordance with the legislation which then applied.

'Some women did not proceed with adoption, as was originally planned, and with the support of families, took their babies home.'