T (A Child)

Judgment

Sir Mark Potter P:

This case concerns an infant male child, T, born on 15 July 2008 and now some 16 months old. On 18 September 2008, when he was only 2 months old, he was admitted to hospital with multiple injuries which I will describe below. He was discharged on 22 October 2008 into foster care pursuant to an interim care order obtained by the respondent local authority (“the LA”) on 3 October 2008.

We are concerned with an application by T’s mother (“the mother”), who seeks permission to appeal against the findings of His Honour Judge O’Dwyer in a judgment dated 7 August 2009, following a 5-day fact finding hearing concerning the causation of T’s injuries in the course of the care proceedings.

The second respondent to this application is T’s father (“the father”) with whom the mother was living at the time that T’s injuries were sustained and when he was admitted to hospital. The third respondent is T, by his guardian (“the guardian”) appointed in the care proceedings.

T had been briefly admitted to hospital on two previous occasions shortly before 18 September 2008, namely 6 August (a day visit) and 11 August (a five day stay), but no serious injuries were found at the time.

On 6 August 2008 he was admitted to hospital following the parents reporting a “limp and floppy episode”. At that time some concern was expressed at the time of his admission that there was evidence of a cut lip sustained on or shortly before 6 August. There was a linear bruise on the right buttock similarly sustained shortly before that date. No explanation from the parents was forthcoming in respect of those injuries and it is not in dispute they were not followed through by health professionals at the time.

On 11 August 2008 T was again admitted following what the parents reported as a further “limp and floppy episode”, being discharged on 16 August 2008. The medical assessment by the treating professionals at that time in respect of both episodes, each of which was said by the parents to have occurred around or shortly after feeding, was that T was suffering from reflux.

On 13 August 2008, T sustained an injury while in hospital which caused a bruise to his left forehead. He was in the immediate care of his father on the ward at the time. There were no other witnesses.

On 2 September 2008, T was seen by a health visitor who noted that the right side of his head was swollen. She advised the parents to seek medical advice but did not oversee it herself. T did n