A baby sustained “terrible” head injuries accidentally after falling, a High Court judge has concluded. The boy had been hurt while at home two years ago, Mr Justice Newton heard.
His family said he had fallen and banged his head while pulling himself up against a sofa. Doctors had suggested his injuries were “not in keeping” with “falling from a standing height”.
Mr Justice Newton decided it was “more likely than not” that “a fall” accounted for the baby’s “terrible injuries”. The boy’s mother had acknowledged that “she should have been watching” her son.
But Mr Justice Newton said that every parent recognised there were occasions, “when juggling day-to-day activities”, that an accident could occur. The judge has outlined detail of the case in a ruling published online after considering evidence at a private family court hearing in Luton, Bedfordshire, last year.
He said the child involved, who “very happily” appeared to have made a full recovery, could not be identified in media reports of the case. Central Bedfordshire Council has welfare responsibilities for the boy, and other children in the family, and had asked him to make decisions about the cause of injuries.
Family members had told how the baby was with an older brother when he was hurt. The boy’s mother, and other adults, were in the “next room”. Relatives said they heard a “loud bang”, were “on the scene within seconds” and paramedics had been called.
“The mother acknowledges that she should have been watching (the boy) that day, but every parent recognises, with the benefit of hindsight, that there are occasions when juggling day-to-day activities or minor distractions, that an accident can occur, and how a parent feels responsible for that occurring,” said Mr Justice Newton, who is based in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
“Bringing all the strands together, I have concluded, on the descriptions of the family and the doctors… that it is more likely than not that a fall accounts for the terrible injuries which (the boy) sustained that day.”
Mr Justice Newton said there was nothing to suggest that the baby had been pushed by his older brother or that he had been shaken. He said children had lived “with family members” after the boy was hurt, but gave no detail of current care arrangements.
