Re B-S (A Child)

This is an appeal against a decision by Her Honour Judge Robertshaw sitting at the Family Court at Plymouth on 22 February 2017. By her judgment, the judge found that the appellant mother was the sole perpetrator of injuries sustained by her daughter L.

L was born in February 2016. Upon her admission to hospital on 29 March 2016 when she was five weeks old, she had suffered bruising to her face, jaw, chest, and back, and had sustained fractures to three of her ribs. The injuries had probably been caused on three separate occasions. There is no appeal against the judge’s findings that these were

non-accidental injuries.

The basis of the appeal, and in relation to which permission was given by Black LJ (as she then was), is that the judge was wrong in finding that the mother alone caused the injuries to L, and rather that, on the analysis of all the evidence, a proper finding would have been that both the mother and the second respondent, SP (the mother’s then boyfriend), were both potential perpetrators.

Background

The mother had her troubles and difficult upbringing. She was subject to a child protection plan for a period of time due to alleged abuse and violence from her father. She suffered from depression, situational anxiety, lack of confidence, and anger management issues. The mother’s relationship with her own mother was described by the judge as “difficult” and

“acrimonious”. Twice in the year before L’s birth, the maternal grandmother had to call the police because she felt threatened by the mother.

The natural father of L has played no part in the proceedings, and the mother’s case was that her pregnancy was consequent upon her having been raped by the father. The mother met SP online. When the mother moved into her flat during the course of her pregnancy, SP also moved in, allegedly to help her to settle and to cope. He remained supporting the mother during her pregnancy and after L’s birth. SP himself had had a troubled upbringing and had

his own difficulties with anger and managing his own lifestyle.

During the course of the pregnancy, the mother had engaged well with the midwifery services.

There were, however, some concerns about the mother’s mental health and the role of the maternal grandmother who, it was said, had been violent to the mother during her own childhood.

When L was born, the mother was just 19 and SP, 17. There were immediate concerns after

L’s birth in relation to the mother’s ability to care for L and, importantl