A COURT ruled yesterday that the five-year-old daughter of a woman who faces deportation to Jamaica for drug-dealing should remain in Scotland with a white foster parent.

The natural mother, Miss Althea Matthan, 22, reacted furiously to the ruling. She described it as disgusting and vowed to continue to fight for custody of her child, who was born in London.

Three appeal court judges decided Fiona Matthan should stay with Mrs Helen Osborne, from Perth, rather than Miss Matthan. Church officials backed the judges, stressing that the welfare of the child was paramount.

Mrs Osborne, 42, a former neighbour of Miss Matthan in London, took care of Fiona after the mother began selling drugs four years ago. In 1995, Miss Matthan was arrested for dealing in crack cocaine and jailed for three years. She was also told she would be deported at the end of her sentence but that process was halted pending the outcome of the custody dispute.

Mrs Osborne moved to Scotland and raised an action in Perth Sheriff Court seeking custody of Fiona, and the sheriff ruled in her favour in April last year. Miss Matthan then appealed to the Court of Session.

In upholding Sheriff John Wheatley's decision, the appeal judges conceded there was no ideal solution for Fiona, who would almost certainly face racial problems as a black child being brought up in a white environment.

However, the judges said it would be in the girl's best interests to remain in a stable and loving home with her foster mother rather than suffer the pain and distress of being sent back to an uncertain future in Jamaica.

Miss Matthan said she hated the

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Osborne family and would continue to fight to get her daughter back. She said she would meet her solicitor later this week to examine her legal options, adding that she was uncertain if immigration officials would allow her to remain in the country to pursue the case.

She said: ''I will do everything I can to win her back so she can come back home with her real mother. There's one thing I'm certain of - I'm not getting on the plane to Jamaica without her. I will win in the end. I'm just going to have to keep fighting for as long as it takes.''

Mrs Osborne, who has three other children, was not available to comment yesterday.

Her daughter, Deborah, 20, however, said the family were overjoyed at the decision and looked forward to a happy future with Fiona.

She said: ''As soon as they found out they went to pick Fiona up and they have gone away for a couple of days to celebrate.''

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said: ''The rights and welfare of the child are of paramount importance.

''It is ideal for children to be brought up by their natural parents but there are many cases where a child has been removed for its own good.

''If the appeal court has upheld the sheriff's decision in this case then there must be ample evidence to support that.''

Mrs Ann Allen, convener of the Church of Scotland's board of social responsibility, said it was crucial a child was brought up in a loving home. She said that was more important than race or the relationship between parent and child. She said every case had to be judged on its individual merits but it appeared the appeal court judges had made a ''sensible'' decision.

Mr Martin Verity, the Commission for Racial Equality's senior officer in Scotland, said children in mixed families could lack experience of dealing with racism while others would face no such difficulties.

He added that it was important to consider a child's cultural background during its upbringing.