Guildford couple cleared of child abuse

A couple in their mid-20s whose baby was adopted after they were wrongfully accused of abuse have been told that they unlikely to have the child returned.

Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter were found not guilty of causing injury to their baby more than three years after they took the child to hospital upon finding bleeding in the mouth.

But when the criminal charges against them finally came before a judge at Guildford Crown Court, Ms Cox and Mr Carter were acquitted.

Michael Turner QC, of Garden Court Chambers in London, said: “These innocent parents have been spared a criminal conviction and a prison sentence for a crime they never committed”. “I feel completely let down by the system, well and truly let down”.

But because the baby has already been adopted Karrissa and Richard, both 25, understand they will not be allowed contact with the child again. The baby, whose gender can not be revealed due to the restrictions imposed by the court, is the couple’s first and only child.

“[The child] wouldn’t want to be put back in the auto and would cling on, hold on to me”.

“The family court is saying on the balance of probabilities what happened and theyre reaching a conclusion on that with a view to protecting the child which is a different thing”, he said.

A spokesman for The Royal Surrey County Hospital said that “children’s safety is paramount” to all staff but that “e xtensive bruising in a non-independently mobile child is always a trigger for further questions to be asked”. Any child would have been taken into care because of the allegations.

She said that if their appeal against the adoption ruling was unsuccessful because of the current laws, she would try to persuade politicians to pass new legislation to take situations like theirs into account.

Social services and family courts have ruined a family in the United Kingdom after a couple’s baby was taken away on wrong charges of child cruelty.

The court had been told that defence experts discovered the child was suffering from a blood disorder called Von Willebrands II, which causes a person to bruise easily, as well as a vitamin D deficiency and infantile rickets.

Now both Ms Cox and Mr Carter have said they plan to launch a legal battle to overturn the adoption but lawyers expressed doubts they will ever see the child again.

Emma Fenn, also of Garden Court Chambers, said: “This tragic case highlights the real dangers of the Government’s drive to increase adoption and speed up family proceedings at all costs”.

The prosecution also conceded that one of their own medical experts could not be sure the X-rays showed fractures, and jurors were told to record not guilty verdicts.

He added: “Assume that the criminal case produced a few new evidence, procedurally it would be perfectly open to the parents, and it sounds like they’re doing this, to apply to have the order set aside”. We had contact but have missed everything our child has done.