A couple whose child taken away and adopted out after they were wrongly accused of abuse has been told that they will likely never see their baby again, despite being cleared off all charges.
UK couple and first time parents, Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter, took their six-week old infant to the emergency room months ago to address some bleeding from the baby’s mouth caused by a torn frenulum.
During the baby’s stay and the medical centre, hospital staff noticed what they described as “bruising” and “cartilage fractures” on the baby.
Alerting child services, the Surrey couple then entered into a lengthy court battle where they were accused of child abuse. Cox and Carter fought the charged over a period of months but were eventually unsuccessful in their case.
Their child was then adopted out to another UK family.
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Since that day, Cox and Carter have gone on to prove that the injuries seen medical staff were an extraordinary coincidence of Von Willebrands II, a disorder that causes people to bruise easily, and a vitamin D deficiency which causes the rickets or fractures – not abuse.
An expert radiologist, commissioned by the couple, even suggested that there were no fractures in the first place.
But despite the couple’s success in proving the charges wrong, their lawyers have told them that they are unlikely to get their baby back as the adoption has already been finalised.
“These innocent parents have been spared a criminal conviction and a prison sentence for a crime they never committed,” Michael Turner QC, of Garden Court Chambers in London, said, “Their life sentence is that they are likely never to see their baby again.”
Up until a year ago, the couple had regular supervised visits with their child, who was described as being very affection and bubbly.
“[The child] said mummy and daddy quite a lot and used to get upset when it was time for contact to finish,” Cox told a local paper, “[The child] wouldn’t want to be put back in the car and would cling on, hold on to me. We’d love to have our child back home with us where [the child] belongs.”
“I feel completely let down by the system, well and truly let down. It’s been a long three years trying to battle this and we’re going to fight to try to get our child back.”
“We took our child to the hospital seeking help and they stole our baby from us.”
