A British policewoman is demanding the return of her 15-month baby after he was taken into care following allegations she left him alone in a New York hotel.

Met Police officer Louise Fielden has been separated from her son Samuel for eight months after staff at the Chelsea Highline Hotel reported her to the authorities.

Fielden said she left the child sleeping for 30 minutes while she went downstairs to sterilise his bottles which she claimed was "acceptable for a short period of time in my culture".

The 42-year-old was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance, which turned out to be a codeine prescription for her slipped discs.

But earlier this week a US federal court in Brooklyn threw the criminal case against her out and she is now demanding her son be returned to England.

The single mother from London is now trying to get Samuel into the care of a cousin in Bedfordshire while the case is resolved.

In her lawsuit, she also claims Samuel's foster mother, pro-LGBT activist Susan Sena, is an unsuitable caretaker as it goes against her beliefs as a "devout conservative member of the Church of England".