Clarification on bringing Brasilian step-son to UK

[hadsy]

Hi All,

I'm a born and bred Englishman who married my lovely Brasilian lady last summer, 2007, in Brasil.
My wife has a valid settlement visa and we both live happily in London.
My wife also has a 6 year old son from a previous marriage.
For various reasons my wife's son currently lives with his grandparents in Brasil, however, my wife is going back to Brasil in August with the intention of bringing him back to London for us to live as a family.

The child's father, Mr Idiot, is half Brasilian half Italian also lives in London using his Italian passport. He has no interest in his kid living in the same city as him even though we will be 100% responsible for him.
The child has a Brasilian passport only, although he is entitled to an Italian passport.

We declared on my wife's original settlement visa application that she had a child but he was not travelling with us at that time, so her current visa states zero dependants.

I understand that the child can come to UK under the same immigration rules as his mother. However I have a few questions about the subject:

1. Do we need any kind of legal documentation from the father, Mr Idiot, giving permission for the son to come to live in London?
2. As the child has been living with the grandparents for the last 2 years I don't think my wife can claim "Sole Responsibility" so would adoption from my side be an option?
3. When we apply for the child's visa will my wife's visa get updated to have 1 dependant and the child's name? or does my wife need another visa? (I hope not it was quite expensive the first time )

This is the last visa/immigration hurdle for us, having already dealt with the leaglities of a foreign wedding in Brasil and UK settlement application for my wife after she overstayed and was then refused entry in to UK.

I'm not expecting a quick win here but any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hadsy

[vinny]

See also Can I go to live with my parents in the UK as a child? and Chapter 14 - Settlement entry for children. In particular, 14.5 - "Sole responsibility" and [2006] UKAIT 00049 TD (Paragraph 297(i)(e): "sole responsibility") Yemen.

[JAJ]

Why not get the child an Italian passport?

[hadsy]

Well, we thought about that as an option but that would involve some kind of effort from the father who, unfortunately, does not share any interest in bringing the child to England. Sadly, it would appear that he is happy to relinquish any kind of responsibility for his child.
In fact, even though my wife and her ex-husband have gone their seperate ways, he has a mentallity of not wanting his son to live in an environment with another man so he will more likely try to fight the issue rather than help it.