Haverhill parents in court for tragic case of injured baby
A Haverhill couple failed to seek immediate medical help for their injured baby, a court has heard.
Despite family members advising that urgent action was required, nothing was done for eight hours.
During that time the baby was suffering with a spiral fracture of the right arm and appeared to be in pain whenever the arm was touched.
Last Thursday at Ipswich Crown Court the parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons - aged 22 and 21 - were sentenced after pleading guilty to neglecting to obtain medical care for the child who was less than a year old.
Prosecutor Charles Myatt said that eight hours after family members were asked for advice, the baby was eventually taken to a doctor’s surgery but not the one nearest to the parents’ home.
After briefly visiting the Christmas Maltings Surgery on the morning of September 11, 2011, they arrived at the Clements Practice where after initially saying the baby had colic they referred to problems with it’s arm.
Mr Myatt said that as a result the baby was taken to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge where a spiral fracture, believed to have been sustained sometime in the previous week, was
diagnosed.
The injury was believed to be “non accidental”, said Mr Myatt, prompting the involvment of social services and the police.
Angela Rafferty, appearing for the baby’s mother said it was a “tragic case” resulting from a short-lived incident.
Appearing for the father, Lindsay Cox said he accepted that action should have been taken sooner and regretted not having done so.
Judge David Goodin said both parents would be made the subject of Community Orders with a requirement to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work.
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Wednesday 19 June 2013
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