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'Mother kills baby placed on risk register'
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent9 Sep 2008
A baby boy had his back broken at the climax of eight months of violence leading to his death, the Old Bailey heard today.
The 17-month-old had been placed on Haringey council's child protection register eight months before he died, the jury was told.
The mother and her partner were on police bail after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting the child before his death.
Doctors and social workers had seen the toddler in the run-up to his death, the court heard. They feared that the mother could neglect and physically abuse the baby.
Yet "Baby P" was still returned to his mother and died in circumstances which would be "likely to fill any reasonable person with revulsion", the court heard.
When he died last August at North Middlesex Hospital the evidence of the violence he suffered included:
• Eight fractured ribs.
• He had swallowed a broken tooth.
• Two of his fingernails and the tips of two other fingers were missing. A toenail was missing.
• Ulcerated lesions on his scalp and the membrane between his upper lip and gum was torn.
But most horrifically the baby's back was broken, said Sally O'Neill QC, prosecuting. "That particular injury requires an extremely forceful hyper-extension of the spine by, for example, forcing a child's back over your bent knee or over a banister rail.
"The effect of that particular assault would have been to cause paralysis from the level of the injury down."
The baby's mother took P to the Child Development Centre to assess his development two days before his death.
Baby P was seen by Dr Sabah Alzayyat, a locum consultant paediatrician, who noted a number of bruises but decided not to give him a full systemic examination because P was "miserable and cranky."
Yet many of the injuries P suffered - including the fractured ribs and the paralysis from the spine injury - were caused at least 48 hours before his death. "This would have been evidenced at the very least by floppiness and could not fail to have been observed by a competent doctor who had examined P properly," said Miss O'Neill.
A child being "miserable and cranky" may not seem "to you or me to be the best reason for a consultant paediatrician to not fully examine a child who is known to be on the child protection register," added the QC. The prosecutor also warned the jury that there were "some unsatisfactory features" in the doctor's evidence including alterations to her notes after P died a few days after.
Ms O'Neill told the seven man, four woman jury: "The death of any child is tragic. The death of a child in these circumstances is likely to fill any reasonable person with revulsion." The mother, aged 27, and her 32-year-old boyfriend who was living in the house in Haringey at the time of the death, can not be identified for legal reasons.
The couple and another defendant, Jason Owen, 35, now living in Bromley, all plead not guilty to murdering Baby P in August last year and an alternative count of causing or allowing his death.
All three in the dock claim they knew nothing of the injuries inflicted on P or "that one of their co-defedants was responsible", the court heard.
"Whether they inflicted the injuries themselves or knew that one of their codefendants was doing so, either way they knew what was going on and were a party to these unlawful assaults - the effects of which over the last few days in particular would have been absolutely clear to any adult in the house," said Miss O'Neill. Baby P's mother had met his father when she was 16. They married in 2003 but their relationship was already in trouble. She began a relationship with her boyfriend in June 2006 when P was only three months old and a month later the baby's father left the home.
After P's birth his mother had been treated for depression and, aged six months, she told her GP that the baby was bruising easily. In October 2006 P had bruising on the side of his head and chest which she said was caused when he fell down the stairs.
In December P was taken to the GP with injuries to his forehead and the bridge of his nose and bruising to his chest. His mother appeared "flustered and unable to provide a clear explanation," the court heard.
P was admitted to Whittington Hospital with his mother claiming bruises were caused by falling off a settee onto his toys and scratches had come from their dog. She told doctors that her boyfriend came to the house but was never left with the child on his own.
"This was not accurate but was an untruth which was persisted in throughout. You may want to consider whether it is a significant one," said Miss O'Neill.
A consultant considered the bruises were unusual and likely to be "non-accidental" and social services were called in for the first time. On his discharge P was placed in the care of a woman friend of his mother while further investigations, including police inquiries, were carried out. The child was later returned to his mother. On December 19, the mother and her mother were both arrested for assaulting the baby, and bailed.
The trial continues.
