Couple Wrongly Accused of Child Abuse Recount Nightmare of Never Seeing Baby Again

Three years ago, hospital staff handed over Karrissa Cox and fiancee, Richard Carter’s baby to social services over suspected child cruelty. They had taken the then six-week-old who was bleeding from the mouth to the hospital in the middle of the night.

The 25-year-old couple, who were previously allowed limited contact with their baby, were cleared of the criminal charge only this week when medical evidence was reassessed, but may never see their baby again as a court ordered the baby to be given away for adoption last year.

According to Mirror UK, defence experts found the so-called abuse was actually Von Willebrands II, a blood disorder which causes someone to bruise more easily. The ‘healing fractures’ an X-ray found on the child were found to be a result of a deficiency in vitamin D and infantile rickets.

Recounting the nightmare, mum, Karrissa said:

“Giving birth was extraordinary. It was life changing to become a mother. It is the best feeling in the world to hold someone you have created, that you are going to care for and help grow.

We woke up one night to our child crying. We thought it was for a bottle but Richard noticed some blood. We panicked and raced to the hospital, we were so worried. Straight away they started to judge us, thinking we had abused our child. It felt awful, absolutely awful to be accused, for people to think we might hurt our own child. Our child was put in foster care for a while. We had supervised contact for two and a half years then they decided our child would be adopted and we would have no further contact. Hearing that was so painful, like nothing you can imagine. It was the worst feeling in the world.

I will never forget that last contact we had. We knew before it would the last time. We made it a special day, taking [our child] to a soft play area. It was a summer’s day. We had never seen a bigger smile than we saw that day. We played, took photographs and our child mixed with all the other children like a normal child would. [The child] said mummy and daddy quite a lot and used to get upset when it was time for contact to finish. They wouldn’t want to be put back in the car and would cling on, hold on to me. It was so hard to say that goodbye, knowing that was it. We miss our child a lot. We wish we had our child back. The pain has never got any less. We see people out and about with their children and can only think ‘Why us? Why did they take our child away from us for no reason?’ It is heartbreaking to know our child is out there, living and breathing in someone else’s arms.”

The baby’s dad, Richard, added:

“As a first time dad, I cannot even put it into words how happy I was. And then, six weeks later, I was destroyed. Every part of my body felt like it was being ripped away from this earth. My body was in pain I had never felt before.

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We will fight ‘til our last breath. No parent should go through this ever. This just rips your soul away from you. We wouldn’t wish this on anyone. We keep each other strong. We have lost three-and-a-half years. We had contact but we have missed everything our child has done outside that small window we could see them. What was our child doing every other day? We’ll never know. We have missed out on all those memories.”

The chances of getting their baby back is however quite slim. Nick Hodson, a partner at legal firm Stephensons, said reversing an adoption order was “almost impossible.”

An expert in care and adoption cases, Mr Hodson, added: “It would seem this is one of those terrible situations where the Court of Appeal is not going to reverse the order. In almost all cases adoption is final because as far as the law is concerned the adoptive parents are the child’s legal guardians and the birth parents have no legal rights with the child at all.”

Despite the bleak outlook, Karrissa said to her child: “We love you and we miss you and we are sorry you had to be put through all of this. If we don’t get you back, we still hope to see you in the future. We know it is going to be tough but we are going to try. We have to. People need to know this goes on and be told the truth – you can take your baby into hospital scared they might be ill and the hospital can steal your baby away from you.”