Rachel Selby was abandoned in the expressionless of night on the steps of a church building at just two-days-old.

Back in 1987, two law officers in Liverpool got a shock when they discovered baby Rachel wrapped up in a plastic carrier pocketbook.

She was left outside the Our Lady of Lourdes and St Bernard'southward church in Toxteth - and so was taken to a hospital where she was named Victoria past nurses.

Merseyside police put out a plea to notice her female parent but she was never found despite extensive inquiries by police - and then she was adopted by a loving family at six-months-sometime and renamed Rachel.

"She plainly felt she couldn't come forward for whatever reasons they were. I think she must have felt very scared," says Rachel on tonight's Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace.

"I wonder if my nascency begetter had seen these articles. He might not have even known that what he was looking at was his daughter."

Foundling Rachel Selby is drastic to discover where she comes from (

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ITV)

She was taken in by John and Lilian Selby, who had already adopted their v-yr-old girl.

"My sis was blackness and I was white. Because of the diversity in our family yous can't hide the fact we were adopted," says Rachel.

Unusually at an early age, Rachel was told that she was a foundling, which was a "painful subject" she didn't cull to talk about a great bargain.

Rachel still lives in Liverpool with her partner and two children - but has never dared to become back to run across the site of her abandonment.

"I accept always avoided going back to where I was abased," she admits.

"I've probably made decisions deliberately to avoid it without realising I have. I call up at present the fourth dimension is correct for me to face that fear of the unknown."

Rachel was taken in past loving parents, who had already adopted her sister (

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On the night Rachel was constitute, Reverend Peter Morgan was at abode in the adjoining Presbytery and still lives there more three decades later.

Meeting Reverend Morgan for the outset time, Rachel is stunned to detect she wasn't left on the steps of the church simply actually on the doorstep of Peter's habitation.

Revealing what he remembers, Peter says: "They put you at that place and phoned the constabulary so you would be plant - and you were almost straight away. You had been beautifully cared for and dressed very warm.

"There'south no dubiousness in my listen you were left on that doorstep knowing that somebody was going to find you and make sure you were well looked afterward."

Peter believes that Rachel's mother was responsible for phoning the police and may have known him and his church building because it was a secluded doorway.

Rachel goes back to the church where she was found (

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Although this information offers Rachel condolement, she is even so left wanting to know where she came from.

"I need to know the truth of where I came from, who my nascence mother and father are. It's still this called-for desire. Everybody deserves to know their identity," explains Rachel.

Rachel'southward DNA is uploaded to a national database and incredibly there is a breakthrough that volition finally unlock where she came from.

Eventually, they constitute 2 brothers in the Liverpool area and discovered one of them, Kevin, is Rachel's father.

Withal, Kevin, who lives just 10 miles away, has no idea who the mother is considering he was quite a young man with a lot of girlfriends at the time.

In a commencement for Long Lost Family, a birth parent of a foundling agrees to meet on camera.

Rachel had a happy childhood but wants to know who her nascency parents are

Kevin, who has six other children but is now single and lives on his own, reveals he was shocked simply "made up" to discover he had a girl.

"Information technology's just sad it'south taken so long. 30 years is a long time not knowing one of your kids," says Kevin, who had no idea Rachel existed but would take searched for her if he had known.

He reveals that Rachel has two half-sisters and 4 half-brothers and bursts into tears when he sees a picture of his girl for the first time and wants to meet her.

When Rachel finds out the news she is thrilled that her birth father has been institute, merely admits she is "disappointed" that her birth mother has not been found.

"I recollect y'all fear you're going to get rejected. It's just and so nice he wants to meet me," says Rachel.

Rachel finally gets some answers (

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ITV)

Rachel has never met anyone she is related to and is feeling a whole range of emotions when she goes to see her birth father for the very offset time.

Subsequently taking Covid tests and then they can meet safely, Rachel and Kevin share an emotional hug as they are united.

"I'm sad I wasn't there for you, I merely didn't know anything. I wish I had have known but I'm made up I've found my daughter," Kevin tells her.

Father and daughter click straight away as they bond over their experiences and look through photos of their families.

Rachel says: "Finally speaking to someone who is actually related to me is like finding bits of yourself out again considering you can see your personality in them. I've never had that before.

"Information technology's amazing nosotros actually are connected. That'southward my heritage and that'south my family."

Kevin adds: "It's a life-changing matter coming together Rachel. The by is the past and the hereafter is the future. I want to move things forrard and hopefully it will last forever."

*Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace continues tonight and Wednesday on ITV at 9pm