:00:08. > :00:14.These parents have all lost their children because they have been
:00:15. > :00:22.condemned as child abusers. But they say they are innocent. Did you ever
:00:23. > :00:29.harm your baby girl? No. No, I would never harm her. Their babies were
:00:30. > :00:33.taken after tiny fractures were spotted on X-rays. Doctors say they
:00:34. > :00:36.are evidence of abuse. It is a case of if you didn't do it your partner
:00:37. > :00:39.must have done, and you must have known your partner did because you
:00:40. > :00:44.were in the house at the time. The authorities are on high alert after
:00:45. > :00:51.missing shocking cases like baby P and Daniel Pelka, but are they now
:00:52. > :00:55.going too far. Is it possible that parents have lost their children for
:00:56. > :01:00.good by mistake? Of course it is possible. One campaigning MP even
:01:01. > :01:04.said parents should flee the country rather than face justice in our
:01:05. > :01:08.family courts. Because people don't face a fair trial here, my advice to
:01:09. > :01:12.people if they can afford it to go abroad. Some of done that and now
:01:13. > :01:16.they are numbers on the run. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to
:01:17. > :01:24.live like this I wouldn't give him up for the world. Others have stayed
:01:25. > :01:28.and seen their lives destroyed. He's got a family here that love and
:01:29. > :01:36.adore him that have never done a thing wrong to him but yet we are
:01:37. > :01:39.being torn apart. But the fractures could have other causes, including a
:01:40. > :01:45.disease we thought we had beaten long ago. Some parents have proved
:01:46. > :01:48.their innocence, and had their children returned. It was like a
:01:49. > :01:54.nightmare that you don't ever seem to be able to wake up from. So are
:01:55. > :01:57.medical mistakes and flawed child protection system shattering
:01:58. > :02:02.innocent lives? I couldn't believe that this actually still happened in
:02:03. > :02:13.England. I didn't think it could happen in England.
:02:14. > :02:25.In April 2012 Jules graves birth to a beautiful boy. It should have been
:02:26. > :02:33.a happy occasion, but there wasn't much to celebrate. Now he's here we
:02:34. > :02:37.don't know what's going to happen. I had to give my passport and
:02:38. > :02:40.everything over so they would let me leave the hospital, but everything
:02:41. > :02:46.seems all right so far. I haven't heard anything from social services
:02:47. > :02:57.yet. But just the waiting game really. Jill is a fugutive, her son
:02:58. > :03:01.Loac was born hundreds of miles from home in a remote part of Spain.
:03:02. > :03:10.British Association services have been searching for him from birth.
:03:11. > :03:14.You are so tired aren't you? Her husband John had to travel in secret
:03:15. > :03:35.from England to visit his new baby boy. Social workers tried
:03:36. > :03:40.everything, even contacting Interpol to try to track them down. I had a
:03:41. > :03:43.phone call from my aunt, apparently social services have been round her
:03:44. > :03:46.house searching for her. I also found they have been to my parents'
:03:47. > :03:51.house snooping around trying to find out where they are. We are basically
:03:52. > :03:58.waiting to see now what they are going to do next. Social services
:03:59. > :04:14.don't trust John and Jill as parents. They think they are child
:04:15. > :04:23.abusers. It is June 2012 and I'm on my way to meet Jill. I have been
:04:24. > :04:29.given directions to go to a town about two hours from here, once
:04:30. > :04:33.there sit tight and wait for further instructions. I don't know where
:04:34. > :04:41.Jill and Loac are living right now, that is a necessary precaution. Jill
:04:42. > :04:50.has called me with directions to a safe house, it is not where she
:04:51. > :04:55.lives. Her parents - bee and Gareth are here helping her. Jill is
:04:56. > :05:07.enjoying getting to know her son, but she never feels sure. I never
:05:08. > :05:10.imagined my life being like this at all, it is hard to leave the country
:05:11. > :05:15.you have grown up in. I didn't really want to leave. But I wasn't
:05:16. > :05:25.going to have my second baby taken by them. By social services. Jill's
:05:26. > :05:30.first child Aylssa was taken into care in May 2010, she was just ten
:05:31. > :05:35.weeks old. The family's problems started when they noticed a swelling
:05:36. > :05:39.on her arm and took her to the GP. The doctor checked her over, said
:05:40. > :05:49.that she didn't seem in any pain, but she referred me to the hospital.
:05:50. > :05:54.They sent us for X-rays, and said that Aylssa had a trackure to her
:05:55. > :06:01.arm and asked me how -- a fracture to her arm and asked me how it
:06:02. > :06:06.happened. Further X-rays found three more fractures, one on each leg and
:06:07. > :06:18.one on her ribs. Jill couldn't explain them, so doctors thought
:06:19. > :06:21.Aylssa had been abused X-rays found three more fractures, one on each
:06:22. > :06:23.leg and one on her ribs. Jill couldn't explain them, so doctors
:06:24. > :06:26.thought Aylssa had been abused. Did you ever harm your baby girl? No I
:06:27. > :06:29.would never harm her. Did you ever see John harm your baby girl? If I
:06:30. > :06:34.had seen John do anything to harm her in any way or distress her I
:06:35. > :06:38.wouldn't have wanted him to be around her, I wouldn't have let him
:06:39. > :06:43.be around her. Doctors called in social workers from Wokingham
:06:44. > :06:47.Borough Council and Aylssa was taken into care, even though Jill's mum
:06:48. > :06:54.offered to look after the baby. I wasn't given that option. I was
:06:55. > :06:59.told, no. It is because I would not say that my daughter had harmed her
:07:00. > :07:08.daughter. Because I knew she couldn't. So a parent is worried
:07:09. > :07:11.their child is hurt, they do the right thing, they bring the child to
:07:12. > :07:15.hospital, but if they can't explain fractures on an X-ray they are
:07:16. > :07:19.suspected of abuse and may have to leave without their child. They have
:07:20. > :07:34.now entered the world of child protection. Sarah and Paul Ashley's
:07:35. > :07:44.son was taken into care in 2009, when he was a few weeks old. He's a
:07:45. > :07:49.good-looking boy, is that you? Their problems started when they noticed
:07:50. > :07:52.their baby's right leg was swollen. We just thought there was something
:07:53. > :07:58.wrong with our little boy and we did what any normal parents would do,
:07:59. > :08:02.take them to the hospital. But X-rays showed multiple fractures to
:08:03. > :08:11.the baby's legs and ribs. When Sarah and Paul couldn't explain them,
:08:12. > :08:15.doctors assumed the worse. -- worst. Social workers took their baby away.
:08:16. > :08:20.Having to go from being a mum, and being there constantly for him and
:08:21. > :08:26.to then being told I can't hold him or be with him, it was just
:08:27. > :08:30.horrendous. We were told that he wasn't coming home with us, so we
:08:31. > :08:39.knew that whenever he left the hospital it wouldn't be with us, it
:08:40. > :08:48.would be with someone else. But... It was difficult... Yeah. Everyone
:08:49. > :08:54.agrees that protecting children from abuse is critically important. Local
:08:55. > :08:58.authorities have the duty to investigate suspected cases and put
:08:59. > :09:02.the welfare of the child first. They know that failing to take children
:09:03. > :09:07.into care can have devastating consequences. Social workers have
:09:08. > :09:12.come under massive pressure in the past when they have missed terrible
:09:13. > :09:17.cases of child abuse like Baby P. But it is fear of getting it wrong,
:09:18. > :09:25.is that leading to the opposite mistake? Some parents accused of
:09:26. > :09:30.child abuse may be innocent. Since Baby P, the number of care cases has
:09:31. > :09:36.risen dramatically, the last annual figures show more than 10 thousand
:09:37. > :09:45.care application, a record high. Authorities say more children are
:09:46. > :09:48.being protected. We can't play poker with children's safety, we have to
:09:49. > :09:52.have a system that plays safe to begin with, does the work properly
:09:53. > :09:56.to assess the level of risk, if we have got it wrong we have to show
:09:57. > :10:02.the evidence to do that and to return a child home safely, but too
:10:03. > :10:12.many children, historically, have suffered serious harm again back at
:10:13. > :10:15.home it wrong we have to show the evidence to do that and to return a
:10:16. > :10:17.child home safely, but too many children, historically, have
:10:18. > :10:19.suffered serious harm again back at home. Parents' rights are not the
:10:20. > :10:22.priority in these cases. The local authority has a duty to protect
:10:23. > :10:25.children in its area and it also has a great big establishment to help
:10:26. > :10:30.that to happen. Social workers, its zone lawyers, significant resources
:10:31. > :10:39.compared to parents. It can seem to parents as if there is this great
:10:40. > :10:43.juggernaut rolling over them. Sarah and Paul's son has been in poster
:10:44. > :10:49.care for four years, he has had three different foster families. So
:10:50. > :10:56.this is his room for when he comes home. They haven't given up on
:10:57. > :11:01.getting him back. His favourite Tigger, bless him, the battery is
:11:02. > :11:05.nearly dieing. But he loved pressing that. They have searched desperately
:11:06. > :11:09.for any innocent explanation for his injuries, but so far they haven't
:11:10. > :11:19.found one that convinces the experts or authorities. You say you didn't
:11:20. > :11:24.cause his injuries, is that true? We never caused his injuries. I didn't
:11:25. > :11:28.and Sarah didn't. We know each other much better than that. There has to
:11:29. > :11:34.be a medical explanation for this. You don't know, do you? No. We
:11:35. > :11:39.don't. We're not medical experts but it doesn't add up does it. It just
:11:40. > :11:43.doesn't add up at all. You don't go from being a good person one day to
:11:44. > :11:50.being a really bad person the other day. Paul and Sarah can't explain
:11:51. > :11:57.the cause of the fractures, so they can't be a mum and dad. Bone
:11:58. > :12:03.fractures sound simple and straight forward, but they are not. When you
:12:04. > :12:07.think of a fracture, you think of a clean break. But in these cases,
:12:08. > :12:14.many of the fractures are not like that at all. They are tiny cracks
:12:15. > :12:20.which are often very difficult to detect. On this X-ray they are here,
:12:21. > :12:25.unless parents can explain the cause, doctors almost always take
:12:26. > :12:31.fractures as evidence of abuse. The reason for that as far as I can see
:12:32. > :12:36.is that it is difficult to find other causes quit a lot of the time.
:12:37. > :12:42.Most fractures in children occur result of physical trauma, usually
:12:43. > :12:48.as a result of them falling over and hurting themselves when they are
:12:49. > :12:52.older. To get multiple fractures, as an infant, where's that physical
:12:53. > :13:01.trauma come from is a reasonable question. Lisa's another parent who
:13:02. > :13:06.was asked that question. She had heard a strange clicking noise from
:13:07. > :13:13.her baby's chest, but when X-rays showed fractures her days as a
:13:14. > :13:18.mother were numbered. I don't know what was going to happen. I was
:13:19. > :13:24.totally unprepared for it. And it is obviously turned my world
:13:25. > :13:29.upsidedown. Lisa brought me to the hospital where social workers took
:13:30. > :13:35.her baby. What was it like the moment you left? Heart-breaking. To
:13:36. > :13:41.leave my son on the bed and walk away while the foster carer and the
:13:42. > :13:56.social worker picked him up and left with him. Now Lisa sees her child
:13:57. > :14:02.just twice a year. Did you harm your baby? No. You would say that though
:14:03. > :14:08.wouldn't you? Definitely not, I wouldn't be going through this now
:14:09. > :14:13.just to save face, just to you know cover it up. Lisa says the strain of
:14:14. > :14:18.the investigation wrecked her relationship with her child's
:14:19. > :14:21.father. It was case if you didn't do it your partner must have done, and
:14:22. > :14:24.you must have known your partner did because you were in the house at the
:14:25. > :14:28.time. It felt like they were playing us off against each other. The tight
:14:29. > :14:34.restrictions around family court cases make it difficult for us to
:14:35. > :14:39.investigate all the evidence. But we know that once fractures are found
:14:40. > :14:44.parents feel under huge pressure to admit abuse. If you are denying
:14:45. > :14:49.having done something when there is, on the face of t medical and other
:14:50. > :14:53.evidence to suggest that you did do something, oddly enough you will
:14:54. > :14:55.often do better if you admit it, even if you haven't done it. Because
:14:56. > :15:02.then you are seen to be co-operative. John is not with his
:15:03. > :15:07.wife Jill in Spain, because he says, under that pressure he made a
:15:08. > :15:11.disastrous mistake. He says he lied to the authorities, making up ways
:15:12. > :15:15.he may have accidentally hurt Aylssa. He thought Jill would be
:15:16. > :15:21.able to keep the baby if he took the blame. I just had a gut feeling at
:15:22. > :15:24.that point that yeah we were going to lose him and I had to come up
:15:25. > :15:31.with something from that moment, I had to protect Jill and Aylssa. Why
:15:32. > :15:34.did you lie? I couldn't have Jill losing Aylssa. That is the thing
:15:35. > :15:43.that killed me the most and has hurt me the most over time. Working ham
:15:44. > :15:48.council -- Wokingham Council deny putting pressure on the couple and
:15:49. > :15:54.said John made the admission early in a police interview. Although John
:15:55. > :15:57.was never charged, he stayed behind after Jill fled, hoping that would
:15:58. > :16:05.keep her safe. He now says lying was a stupid thing to do but that he was
:16:06. > :16:08.desperate. The system, critics say, demands a confession, or else you
:16:09. > :16:15.lose the baby. But the moment you confess to abuse you lose the baby.
:16:16. > :16:21.But innocent parents find a lose, lose situation. One MP has been
:16:22. > :16:26.contacted by hundreds of parents going through the family courts.
:16:27. > :16:32.Hello John, hi. Welcome to parliament. He says the process is
:16:33. > :16:36.so unfair, rather than face justice here, parents should flee the
:16:37. > :16:39.country. Is the system loaded against parents? There is no
:16:40. > :16:43.question, all the cards are held by the local authority. The local
:16:44. > :16:46.authority has large resources to fight the cases, the local authority
:16:47. > :16:50.does all the assessments, so my advice to people if they can afford
:16:51. > :16:54.it is to go abroad. That is wrong though isn't it, you are encouraging
:16:55. > :16:58.people to leave the country because of social services, surely that's
:16:59. > :17:01.wrong? I need to be honest to people and say the system does a lot of
:17:02. > :17:05.damage to children in this country. You can't get a fair trial here,
:17:06. > :17:09.because you can't get a fair trial here, because you can't rely on the
:17:10. > :17:15.evidence being fair, it is best simply to go. If you can, at the
:17:16. > :17:19.time, lawfully. I do think we have a responsibility to make our family
:17:20. > :17:25.courts better, to make them more transparent, to build public
:17:26. > :17:29.confidence in them. And to advocate leaving them all together doesn't
:17:30. > :17:33.solve the problem for the vast majority of children and parents who
:17:34. > :17:39.need our courts to be as good as they possibly can be.
:17:40. > :17:44.All of these cases begin with a medical presumption that unexplained
:17:45. > :17:50.fractures equal abuse. But that presumption is now being challenged,
:17:51. > :17:55.the turning point was the death of this baby, Jayden Ray, his X-rays
:17:56. > :18:03.were examined by four doctors before he died. They identified multiple
:18:04. > :18:08.fractures and concluded that Jayden had been violently abused. But a
:18:09. > :18:11.post mortem proved them wrong. The pathologist noticed something
:18:12. > :18:17.strange about Jayden's bones straight away. Now in a
:18:18. > :18:22.four-and-a-half-month-old baby I shouldn't be able to break their rib
:18:23. > :18:27.with my hands, it should be much, much stronger, in this case it broke
:18:28. > :18:36.very easily. Also the bone at the back of the head was so thin, paper
:18:37. > :18:41.thin and brittle that it also broke. X-rays are just images, but the
:18:42. > :18:46.doctor was able to look at the real thing, Jayden's bones, under the
:18:47. > :18:56.microscope. She discovered he had a condition thought to be a thing of
:18:57. > :19:00.the past, rickets. His vitamin D levels were low, and other bone
:19:01. > :19:04.markers indicated he had rickets. When I tested the mother the mother
:19:05. > :19:11.also had low vitamin D. Which means this baby had low vitamin D since
:19:12. > :19:17.before birth. The doctor's findings showed there was an innocent
:19:18. > :19:23.explanation for the fractures. The parents were cleared of murder, but
:19:24. > :19:28.the verdict has wider implications. The case matters because it shows
:19:29. > :19:34.that doctors diagnosing child abuse from X-rays can get it horribly
:19:35. > :19:41.wrong. Rickets was once widespread in Britain. Found alongside poverty,
:19:42. > :19:47.and poor nutrition. It is caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin D. It
:19:48. > :19:50.is the failure of the bone that is being made within the bone to
:19:51. > :19:54.mineralise and become properly hard. So you have got lots of little
:19:55. > :20:00.patches of softness in there, and that allows the bones to bend. Weak
:20:01. > :20:07.bones? Bones that are soft and have bent as a result of being soft, yes.
:20:08. > :20:13.Rickets used to be treated by sun lamps, because the best source of
:20:14. > :20:18.vitamin D is sunshine. The ultraviolet, the suntan rays produce
:20:19. > :20:23.the help-giving vitamin D. The part played by the sun's rays is shown on
:20:24. > :20:29.this graph, you will notice as the hours of sunshine rise, the death
:20:30. > :20:35.rates sinks. The disease disappeared for decades but now vitamin D
:20:36. > :20:40.deficiency and rickets are back, and one cause is simple. We get most of
:20:41. > :20:45.our vitamin D from sunlight, but fear of skin cancer means people may
:20:46. > :20:51.have overcompensated, aid voiding the sun and using -- avoiding the
:20:52. > :20:58.one and using sun block. And now most of us don't get enough vitamin
:20:59. > :21:06.D, including children and pregnant mums. The deficiency in vitamin D is
:21:07. > :21:12.widespread it could affect Ninkovich. Could low vitamin D lead
:21:13. > :21:17.to weaker bones before it becomes an obvious case of rickets. On this
:21:18. > :21:24.controversial science the doctors don't agree. On the skeltal side of
:21:25. > :21:29.things, we don't have any evidence at the present time that a low
:21:30. > :21:33.vitamin D level of itself increases your risk of fracture. But the data
:21:34. > :21:38.hasn't been collected in a systematic way. There is, as with
:21:39. > :21:41.many things in medicine, an appreciation now that the complexity
:21:42. > :21:47.of what we are dealing with is greater than perhaps what we had
:21:48. > :21:51.anticipated in the past. Low vitamin D by itself may not lead to
:21:52. > :21:57.fractures, but some doctors believe it is a warning side that bones may
:21:58. > :22:01.be abnormal. The logical thing would be that before you get to the very
:22:02. > :22:05.fragile bones you havecmy fragile bones and normal bones, you don't go
:22:06. > :22:10.from this point to this without nothing in the middle. It is
:22:11. > :22:17.something that happens over time. We don't know at what point the changes
:22:18. > :22:23.are so significant that you are more prone to fractures. The problem is
:22:24. > :22:28.it is difficult for doctors to carry out research in studies of infant
:22:29. > :22:32.bones, for fear of hurting babies. But one recent study looked at the
:22:33. > :22:38.post mortems of babies with low vitamin D. When doctors just looked
:22:39. > :22:45.at X-rays they spotted bone abnormalities in 19% of the babies.
:22:46. > :22:53.Under the microscope doctors found bone abnormalities in 69%. We were
:22:54. > :23:03.looking at the bone at 600-times magnification, we were able to see
:23:04. > :23:11.the bone, the culls -- calcium. That is why the microscopic examination
:23:12. > :23:17.of the tissue is ahead of radiology. The sample was small but the study
:23:18. > :23:21.proves a crucial point, X-rays can't always detect abnormalities in a
:23:22. > :23:25.child's bones. It has been said and accepted by some radiologists in
:23:26. > :23:30.cross-examination that it is almost as much an art as a science. Because
:23:31. > :23:36.you are looking at very, very slight changes on pictures of X-rays and
:23:37. > :23:40.interpreting from your experience. So it is not like putting something
:23:41. > :23:45.in a test-tube and seeing if it turns pink or blue, it is a very
:23:46. > :23:50.different thing. Challenging traditional thinking on X-rays and
:23:51. > :23:55.fractures is not easy. I'm not saying that every child with a
:23:56. > :24:00.fracture has a vitamin D deficiency. I have had cases in the family court
:24:01. > :24:07.where I said so, that is certainly not all of cases of a baby with
:24:08. > :24:10.fractures will be child abuse. The grey cases in the middle are the
:24:11. > :24:15.really difficult ones. Jill, the mum on the run in Spain lost her
:24:16. > :24:19.daughter after doctors found fractures on X-rays. But they might
:24:20. > :24:25.not have been caused by abuse. A blood test showed that Aylssa had
:24:26. > :24:29.very low levels of vitamin D. It was a small blood sample and so the test
:24:30. > :24:34.should have been repeated, yet her vitamin D levels appeared so low
:24:35. > :24:40.that doctors began treating her with calcium-boosting medicine. But Jill
:24:41. > :24:45.and John were kept in the dark about their baby's condition for weeks,
:24:46. > :24:49.they were not told that baby Aylssa was being treated for vitamin D
:24:50. > :24:55.deficiency, and all of this time, because of the X-rays, they were
:24:56. > :25:01.being accused of child abuse. Has anybody explained to you that might
:25:02. > :25:06.be a reason why your baby has got fractures? No. It was swept under
:25:07. > :25:10.the carpet. That wasn't the reason at all. I had e-mailed loads of
:25:11. > :25:15.information that I had found on vitamin D deficiency, rickets, to my
:25:16. > :25:20.solicitor, I was told that we weren't allowed to use that, it was
:25:21. > :25:34.like we were making an excuse for how, for the injuries. Aylssa's case
:25:35. > :25:41.went to the family court, where strict rules keeps the families from
:25:42. > :25:46.out. Guilty beyond reasonable doubt doesn't apply, it is based on
:25:47. > :25:51.probabilities, the explanation that is most likely to be true. It was a
:25:52. > :25:54.total nightmare. You can't prove your innocence against them. They
:25:55. > :25:59.don't allow you to prove their innocence. I couldn't believe that
:26:00. > :26:04.this actually still happened in England. I didn't think it could
:26:05. > :26:08.happen in England. Ultimately the judge decided that John had
:26:09. > :26:14.deliberately hurt the baby and that Jill must have known. Jill and her
:26:15. > :26:19.family refused to accept the ruling. And that was held against them. All
:26:20. > :26:29.they kept on about that I was lying, and that I knew far more than what I
:26:30. > :26:34.had said. I wasn't fit to be around Aylssa. Because I didn't agree that
:26:35. > :26:39.I knew more, like they were saying, then that was why I wasn't allowed
:26:40. > :26:45.to have Aylssa home, because I wasn't safe to be around her.
:26:46. > :26:49.Wokingham council says the couple were told about Aylssa's medical
:26:50. > :26:53.results in good time. They say if Jill had separated from John then
:26:54. > :27:01.the ultimate welfare decision might have been different. Aylssa's case
:27:02. > :27:06.was heard at a time when it was hard to challenge medical evidence on
:27:07. > :27:13.fractures. But the Jayden Ray case changed things. In every case I have
:27:14. > :27:17.had since Jayden Ray, where there is a fracture, the first question asked
:27:18. > :27:21.is, what were the vitamin D levels and is there a problem. Is it
:27:22. > :27:26.possible that category of parents who had this set of problems before
:27:27. > :27:36.Jayden Ray have lost their children for good by mistake. Of course it is
:27:37. > :27:40.possible. Sarah has low vitamin D after the birth of her son. But at
:27:41. > :27:49.that critical time her baby was not tested. Lots of love with mummy. She
:27:50. > :27:54.believes there was a medical explanation for his fractures that
:27:55. > :28:00.wasn't found. But now four years on it is impossible to prove. Sarah and
:28:01. > :28:09.Paul are still allowed to see their son, because he hasn't been adopted.
:28:10. > :28:17.They get just four contact visits a year, today is one of them. Sarah's
:28:18. > :28:27.parents are going along to see their grandson too. The visit will last
:28:28. > :28:44.just one hour and every second will be supervised by social workers. The
:28:45. > :28:58.time after seeing their boy is the hardest.
:28:59. > :29:12.From my little boy. It is now another three months to wait and
:29:13. > :29:18.hope and pray, just that waiting game. It is. It is so hard after he
:29:19. > :29:22.has been so happy with us, for that hour, and it was so good, and then
:29:23. > :29:28.just as we told him he had to put his coat on to leave he came up and
:29:29. > :29:32.put his arms around me and said sorry mummy. What's going through
:29:33. > :29:36.his mind. Does he think that it's his fault that he's not with his
:29:37. > :29:48.mummy and daddy. It's so heart-breaking to leave him. If
:29:49. > :29:55.their son is adopted they lose the right to see him ever again. You
:29:56. > :29:58.dread the phone ringing thinking that you are going to get that phone
:29:59. > :30:09.call from social services to say that they have found somebody. And
:30:10. > :30:25.to think that we won't be part of his life and that he will grow up
:30:26. > :30:32.without us is heart-breaking. It is difficult, because you have two
:30:33. > :30:37.innocent parents fighting for their son and you never think it could
:30:38. > :30:45.ever get to this. It is difficult, it really is. But we keep fighting.
:30:46. > :31:05.We won't give up, will we? No. Many parents whose children have
:31:06. > :31:10.been taken have turned to Sophie Palmer, she's a campaigner who
:31:11. > :31:13.trained as a paralegal to help parents in the family courts. She
:31:14. > :31:20.has been supporting Jill, the mum on the run in Spain. When Sophie looked
:31:21. > :31:23.at evidence from Jill's original hearing, she was shocked. It
:31:24. > :31:28.appeared that the medical experts had not been adequately challenged
:31:29. > :31:34.and may even have got important things wrong. I just thought it
:31:35. > :31:39.doesn't add up. This is a two-month-old baby with a, with
:31:40. > :31:45.perfectly decent parents, why would they just turn on their childlike
:31:46. > :31:52.this. When she -- child, like this. When she told me the child's vitamin
:31:53. > :31:56.D level was so severe, how can they treat it as insignificant. Sophie
:31:57. > :31:58.asked for an appeal for Jill. Which meant some of the evidence from the
:31:59. > :32:05.first hearing was finally made public. Radiologist Dr John Summer's
:32:06. > :32:09.said Aylssa's evidence showed no evidence of rickets so that couldn't
:32:10. > :32:15.be a cause of her injuries. We now know that logic is wrong. Cases like
:32:16. > :32:20.Jayden Ray has shown that rickets is not always clear on X-rays.
:32:21. > :32:25.Paediatrician Dr Patricia Kenny said Aylssa's blood tests were normal and
:32:26. > :32:30.she did not have vitamin D deficiency, both wrong. Dr Kenny
:32:31. > :32:34.also claimed infants of white breast-feeding mothers are not at
:32:35. > :32:40.risk of vitamin D deficiency. Really? It is possible for a white,
:32:41. > :32:45.Caucasian baby to develop rickets. And I can give you a personal
:32:46. > :32:48.example, my son was on the way to developing rickets, my wife was
:32:49. > :32:53.breast-feeding him. And gradually we noticed the edge of his rib cage was
:32:54. > :32:57.beginning to look slightly odd and turning up slightly. That is one of
:32:58. > :33:01.the signs you can see when bone is soft like rickets. And when her
:33:02. > :33:06.vitamin D and his vitamin D was measured they were both very low. It
:33:07. > :33:11.can happen to Ninkovich. The contrary, for example, it can't
:33:12. > :33:23.happen to a white baby that's being breast fed, is that true? Clearly
:33:24. > :33:25.not. , it can't happen to a white baby that's being breast fed, is
:33:26. > :33:29.that true? Clearly not. The Dr Stands by his statement on X-ray,
:33:30. > :33:33.both he and Dr Kenny say they can't comment on the details of the case
:33:34. > :33:39.because of family court rules. Jill and John were refused permission to
:33:40. > :33:46.appeal. Aylssa was adopted and that can never be overturned. It felt
:33:47. > :33:54.like a huge injustice. I was sitting next to Jill and of course she just
:33:55. > :34:00.burst into tears, she had hope up until that point. It was hard
:34:01. > :34:13.handing her over to the, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to
:34:14. > :34:21.see her again. How often do you think about her? All the time. I
:34:22. > :34:35.just wonder what she's doing now, if she's all right, if she's safe, if
:34:36. > :34:39.she remembers me. It's not the only case where parents believe the
:34:40. > :34:46.medical issues were not adequately explored. I stopped mentioning
:34:47. > :34:50.anything medical at a certain point because they weren't listening. I
:34:51. > :34:57.was made to feel like it was just making me look stupid and more
:34:58. > :35:03.guilty, if you like. Taking the, obviously the blame off of myself
:35:04. > :35:09.and putting it on to something that didn't exist, apparently. Lisa was
:35:10. > :35:15.anaemic during pregnancy and her vitamin D levels were so low that
:35:16. > :35:23.she's still on calcium boosters. Experts say vitamin D tests are
:35:24. > :35:27.vital in these cases. The best we can hope for is every child under
:35:28. > :35:35.the age of 1 that comes in with a fracture has a bone profile measured
:35:36. > :35:38.by a chemical test, the calcium alkaline, phosphate, vitamin D. That
:35:39. > :35:46.is the thing we would want to do now. But Lisa's baby didn't get the
:35:47. > :35:52.crucial test. The child now calls someone else mummy. It is
:35:53. > :36:00.heart-breaking, the first time I heard that was during a contact
:36:01. > :36:05.visit. And my automatic reaction was to go to him thinking he was
:36:06. > :36:11.referring to me. To see him then look around me and I was told it was
:36:12. > :36:30.just a word. There was nothing to get upset about. That word is
:36:31. > :36:34."mummy". Yeah. Is it just a word? If S word that has a lot of meaning to
:36:35. > :36:50.it. It is a word I should have heard every day for the last four years.
:36:51. > :36:54.Amy got shocking news when her baby son was X-rayed, she had opened that
:36:55. > :37:00.would help doctors find out why he was so ill. Instead they showed
:37:01. > :37:05.multiple fractures. Blood tests showed baby Harrison had severe
:37:06. > :37:11.vitamin D deficiency, but doctors ruled out rickets because it wasn't
:37:12. > :37:15.visible on the X-rays. The doctor, a paediatrician came rushing into the
:37:16. > :37:21.room with three other staff members and the atmosphere had completely
:37:22. > :37:24.changed from there, she was vicious, really vicious, you have done
:37:25. > :37:30.something, you know, someone has abused this boy. You must have
:37:31. > :37:36.caused the fractures. I broke down in tears, I couldn't really say
:37:37. > :37:41.anything. Harrison and his sister were taken into care, but here Amy
:37:42. > :37:46.was unusually lucky, the judge placed them with Amy's mother. Once
:37:47. > :37:53.again the medical experts said that Harrison had been abused. Medical
:37:54. > :37:57.expert evidence is hugely important and can often be all be decisive.
:37:58. > :38:04.You have an expert saying this is a fracture, and I'm a top radiologist,
:38:05. > :38:10.it is difficult to get behind that without, again, very good lawyers,
:38:11. > :38:17.and if possible other expes in to challenge it. Family court experts
:38:18. > :38:24.are a small and select group, and some experts report on dozens of
:38:25. > :38:34.cases a year, it is lucrative work. The expert radiologist in Amy's case
:38:35. > :38:39.is a leading expert on X-rays. He has provided evidence in 2,000 cases
:38:40. > :38:44.of suspected child abuse. We can't name him because of secrecy around
:38:45. > :38:49.the family courts. In Amy's case he said Harrison's bones were radio
:38:50. > :38:52.logically normal, and ruled out the possibility that an illness could
:38:53. > :38:58.explain his injuries. The other expert agreed. That could have been
:38:59. > :39:03.the end of the line for Amy. She faced losing her children forever.
:39:04. > :39:10.Except for one crucial fact, Harrison continued to be ill. He
:39:11. > :39:15.would cry in agony, especially at nightime, he wouldn't be able to
:39:16. > :39:22.sleep properly, he would wake up 14-times a night. And you are not
:39:23. > :39:25.there. It is not you then it is sim. There is something wrong. -- it is
:39:26. > :39:30.him. There is something wrong. The court allowed Amy to appoint another
:39:31. > :39:34.expert, an expert in genetics who discovered the family had an unusual
:39:35. > :39:38.history of broken bones and fractures.
:39:39. > :39:42.He doesn't mess about, does he. Here he says "here I disagree completely
:39:43. > :39:47.that there is strong evidence that Harrison and certain other family
:39:48. > :39:54.members do have an inher rited defect of connective tissue with a
:39:55. > :39:58.susceptibility to fracture". How did you feel when you read that? Amazed
:39:59. > :40:03.that somebody was willing to actually stand up against these
:40:04. > :40:10.doctors. We're getting a diagnosis, we're getting the truth. The
:40:11. > :40:14.professor of genetics eventually convinced the court, Harrison was
:40:15. > :40:19.diagnosed and treated for rickets and a genetic bone disorder.
:40:20. > :40:23.Obviously things do happen, people do abuse their children, I'm not
:40:24. > :40:27.denying that. But at the same time they need to be being vigilent,
:40:28. > :40:31.because these conditions can go unnoticed. These conditions do exist
:40:32. > :40:38.and it is just as likely that these conditions are causing the fractures
:40:39. > :40:43.as it is the parents would be. The same radiologist was involved in
:40:44. > :40:50.another fracture case where the judge felt the experts stated their
:40:51. > :40:55.conclusions too forcefully. "It could be that what has been stated
:40:56. > :41:00.so confidently by paediatric radiologists, as near certainty is,
:41:01. > :41:05.in reality, much less certain" the judge said. The radiologist told us
:41:06. > :41:08.that doctors had to put "the well being of the child first", however
:41:09. > :41:13.distressing this may be to the parents. And that his role is to
:41:14. > :41:19.convey what his experience has been and what the published literature
:41:20. > :41:31.concludes. His name must remain a secret. Back in Spain Jill's been
:41:32. > :41:37.living in hiding for ten months now. But a Spanish police officer has
:41:38. > :41:40.turned up asking questions. Jill is terrified that the UK authorities
:41:41. > :41:47.have found her and are planning to seize her child. I head for a town
:41:48. > :41:50.on the coast to meet her and her parents Debbie and Gareth. This is a
:41:51. > :41:58.rare outing for them. They are frayed to leave the house and now
:41:59. > :42:04.don't go anywhere without Loac. The other day we came back home and
:42:05. > :42:09.there was a police officer coming down towards our house. He wanted
:42:10. > :42:15.mine and John's passport numbers. We have never had Ninkovich come before
:42:16. > :42:20.for passport numbers. What were you thinking at that moment? What would
:42:21. > :42:32.I do if Ninkovich came in and tried to take him from meumbers. What were
:42:33. > :42:35.you thinking at that moment? What would I do if anyone came in and
:42:36. > :42:38.tried to take him from me. What would you have done? Not let go of
:42:39. > :42:49.him. The Spanish police said it was routine, but Jill is worried they
:42:50. > :42:53.will be back? How scared scared am I, very scared. They are vigilent
:42:54. > :42:58.now about the authorities? We keep an eye on cars behind us. We take
:42:59. > :43:03.different routes. Wing mirrors, if we go somewhere a different route
:43:04. > :43:09.back. They are not getting their hand on this one. Sometimes I think
:43:10. > :43:16.I wish I didn't have to live life like this, but I wouldn't give up
:43:17. > :43:21.Loac for the world. The council admits using Interpol to try to find
:43:22. > :43:29.Jill, it said it would be irresponsible not to, as it has a
:43:30. > :43:33.duty to safeguard children. When Loac reaches his first birthday Jill
:43:34. > :43:41.can apply for him to become a Spanish citizen. Until then she
:43:42. > :43:47.remains a mum on the run. I have nightmares that I just, well
:43:48. > :43:55.mainly of Aylssa being taken from me, and people saying, ripping her
:43:56. > :44:05.away from me, saying that I can't see her. I have some... Just that
:44:06. > :44:08.something has happened to her and she's not still alive. I'm never
:44:09. > :44:41.going to see her again. In Bristol Amy now gets to enjoy the
:44:42. > :44:45.simple things in a child's life. After Harrison's genetic disease was
:44:46. > :44:55.diagnosed, social services dropped the case. Amy was finally able to
:44:56. > :45:01.bring her children home. How did that feel? Incredible. Absolutely
:45:02. > :45:06.amazing. We weren't even aware it was going to happen. It happened
:45:07. > :45:10.because I phoned social services and they dropped in, oh by the way I
:45:11. > :45:15.suppose we better tell you that we are actually going to drop the case
:45:16. > :45:22.against you. I sort of fell to the floor and I had to, I was
:45:23. > :45:26.speechless, everyone staired at me and -- stared at me and asked I was
:45:27. > :45:31.I OK, I sat crying with the phone in my hand. South Gloucestershire
:45:32. > :45:36.council said they had to carry out a thorough investigation to ensure
:45:37. > :45:50.children are safeguards and they act on professional medical advice.
:45:51. > :45:56.However they regret the distress the investigation caused.
:45:57. > :46:03.Lisa still hopes her case could have a happy ending, she is giving up her
:46:04. > :46:07.flat to have money for an appeal. We moved here to have a fresh start. We
:46:08. > :46:11.only were here six months when our situation happened. She's moving in
:46:12. > :46:16.with her sister and taking on extra work. How much is an appeal going to
:46:17. > :46:21.cost, with the Court of Appeal? From what I know it is tens and tens of
:46:22. > :46:27.thousands, it is ?20,000, it depends what experts are used and how long
:46:28. > :46:34.it takes. It is going to mean working as many hours as I can and
:46:35. > :46:42.saving as many pennies as I can. But it won't be easy. Do you ever think
:46:43. > :46:47.about giving up? All the time. How do you get through that? Knowing
:46:48. > :46:53.that I haven't done anything wrong. I want the wrongs put right. I
:46:54. > :47:09.refuse to give in to the way I have been treated the last couple of
:47:10. > :47:14.years. Loac has just had his first birthday. That means Jill can apply
:47:15. > :47:18.for him to become a Spanish citizen. It is a big step because British
:47:19. > :47:26.Association workers may now discover where they live. Jill has agreed to
:47:27. > :47:34.let us film at her home for the first time. Dad, John, is travelling
:47:35. > :47:42.over from England to sign the paperwork. It has been nearly a year
:47:43. > :47:46.since he has seen his little boy. They both felt that Loac was safer
:47:47. > :47:59.from social services if John stayed in Britain. Hello, how are you
:48:00. > :48:12.doing. Hello soldier. No! Can I have a cuddle. Come here. You are a heavy
:48:13. > :48:28.boy aren't you. Loac only knows his dad from Skype. He's really chilled.
:48:29. > :48:38.Let's see what we are doing. That is where we were going. There is only
:48:39. > :48:48.so much I can expect, doesn't even know I'm his dad. John stayed in the
:48:49. > :48:55.UK in the hope that the authorities couldn't find Jill by tracking him.
:48:56. > :49:03.I found out that Interpol were looking for me and they contacted my
:49:04. > :49:08.mum asking where I was and if the baby was safe. So I did e-mail them
:49:09. > :49:15.and told them that he's fine. I sent a picture of him. Seeing Loac only
:49:16. > :49:26.reminds John how much he misses his daughter. Remember, he was never
:49:27. > :49:30.charged with harming Aylssa. He has now retracted his statement to the
:49:31. > :49:36.police about how he might have accidentally caused her injuries. I
:49:37. > :49:39.can't understand why we didn't get Aylssa back, I fully understand why
:49:40. > :49:43.they investigated her, but why the investigation went so cruel and
:49:44. > :49:49.twisted and such a witch-hunt just to take our daughter. That is what I
:49:50. > :50:03.don't understand. I love Loac to pieces but my main thing is Aylssa,
:50:04. > :50:08.that's the one that kills me. Today John and Jill are making Loac's
:50:09. > :50:13.application for Spanish citizenship. Jill's brother is along to
:50:14. > :50:25.translate. But they haven't brought Loac they are worried social workers
:50:26. > :50:35.could be waiting to take him. But there is no sign of trouble, and the
:50:36. > :50:48.application is in. Loac will soon be a Spanish citizen and his parents
:50:49. > :50:55.hope that will keep him safe. We haven't forgotten anything have we.
:50:56. > :51:00.I'm hoping not now. Back in the UK, Sarah and Paul's worst fear has come
:51:01. > :51:09.true, their little boy is going to be adopted. They have been told this
:51:10. > :51:17.will be their final contact. Are you ready? As ready as I will ever be.
:51:18. > :51:28.Sarah's parents are coming too, to see their grandson for the last
:51:29. > :51:32.time. Social workers have agreed to let them extra time. Today they get
:51:33. > :51:48.two hours with their son. They film their final visit. Do you want to
:51:49. > :52:14.sit down. The visit is over and the family are
:52:15. > :52:20.back home. You know we are here, you know that. I want my baby. I know
:52:21. > :52:38.you do my duck. I wish I could get him for you. Have I a good cry love.
:52:39. > :52:45.Adoption in the UK is irreversible, whatever happens now their son
:52:46. > :52:49.cannot be returned to them. It doesn't matter what we say. Of
:52:50. > :52:54.course it doesn't. These people they are a law unto themselves. They do
:52:55. > :52:59.what they want. They do what they want, they say what they want. From
:53:00. > :53:03.now until he's 18, the only connection Sarah and Paul can have
:53:04. > :53:12.with their son is through exchange of letters once a year. It is the
:53:13. > :53:18.same rule for his grandparents. You and his granddad will get a letter,
:53:19. > :53:21.she said. I just turned to her and I said, yeah, but I'm never going to
:53:22. > :53:27.see him again, I won't be alive when he gets to 18. I will never stop
:53:28. > :53:31.loving him, Paul, and if I'm not here I want you to tell him that.
:53:32. > :53:37.That me and his granddad will always love him. We know that. You know
:53:38. > :53:41.that. We love you both. We know you do. I don't know how they expect you
:53:42. > :53:48.to say goodbye to your child. You know. He's not dead, is he honestly,
:53:49. > :54:09.I really don't know. I don't care, wherever, if he's
:54:10. > :54:37.going and he's gone, wherever he's going, that family could never love
:54:38. > :54:44.him... Gibe darling. It's hard to overstate the loss of a child. I
:54:45. > :54:50.don't know anyone or I haven't met a client who wouldn't go to go to
:54:51. > :54:52.prison than lose their child. It is very difficult that we have a
:54:53. > :55:03.standard of proof because of the need to protect children which puts
:55:04. > :55:07.parents at that sort of risk. Given what is at stake, it is important
:55:08. > :55:10.the family courts don't get it wrong. To what scale do you think
:55:11. > :55:13.there is injustice in the family court system? One case is not
:55:14. > :55:18.acceptable, in the sense that we should have a system that picks up.
:55:19. > :55:22.When it gets to this level it is a tsunami of injustice. We don't know
:55:23. > :55:27.how many problem cases there are, the Government says reform of family
:55:28. > :55:32.justice is a critical priority. They want new standards for expert
:55:33. > :55:37.witnesses and better outcomes for children and families.
:55:38. > :55:43.One wronged parent is one parent too many, just as one child left without
:55:44. > :55:47.protection is one child too many. And each professional mistake that
:55:48. > :55:51.comes to light should drive us to have "zero tolerance" in the future.
:55:52. > :55:56.Even the judge now in charge of the family courts says that only the
:55:57. > :56:06.death penalty is more drastic than removing a child from the parents
:56:07. > :56:09.forever. He's committed to opening up the family courts. But in
:56:10. > :56:15.fracture cases judges will still rely heavily on medical experts.
:56:16. > :56:21.Mums like Amy know how powerful their opinions can be. She has had
:56:22. > :56:30.another little boy. But her family was almost torn apart. It was like a
:56:31. > :56:35.nightmare you don't seem to ever be able to wake up from. It is
:56:36. > :56:39.something that stays with you and niggles away at you even when it is
:56:40. > :56:46.gone. Even when it is finished. And yeah, it never goes away. In
:56:47. > :56:51.Harrison's case, the medical evidence was exhaustively
:56:52. > :56:58.investigated, but Amy can't forget the other parents who have lost
:56:59. > :57:03.their children forever. It will be over when they stop doing this to
:57:04. > :57:07.other people. When I can say that now people have learned this is
:57:08. > :57:23.happening and they are not going to carry on accusing innocent parents.
:57:24. > :57:27.Back in Spain, it is time for John to go home. He has agreed with Jill
:57:28. > :57:34.that it is better if he stays in the UK for now. I love you lots, be a
:57:35. > :57:39.good boy for mummy. I just have to think and keep Loac safe, and one
:57:40. > :57:49.day we will be back living together and be as a family again, just not
:57:50. > :57:58.yet. To be honest I'm not happy that my son has to be made a Spanish
:57:59. > :58:02.citizen. I think I should be able to live my life with my wife and my
:58:03. > :58:05.child in my home land, I don't think it is right we have to go through
:58:06. > :58:20.this process just to keep my son safe. To keep her little boy Jill
:58:21. > :58:24.has been forced to live on the run, because of the secrecy surrounding
:58:25. > :58:29.the family courts we don't know how many other cases there could be like
:58:30. > :58:36.her's. But we do know that many families still face losing their
:58:37. > :58:48.children forever if they can't explain tiny fractures on an X-ray.