Baby girl's leg broken by parent, judge finds

The baby was taken to hospital and found to have a broken leg in November

A parent broke their baby daughter's leg in a "reckless or negligent" way and would have known that their actions were abusive, a judge has concluded.

The baby was crying "almost inconsolably" in November when she was taken to hospital and was found to have a displaced spiral fracture of her right femur.

Experts said the most likely explanation was "physical abuse" and the girl was put into foster care by Oxfordshire County Council.

Both her mother and father denied causing the injury but the Family Court in Oxford was told it would have been "exquisitely painful" and caused the baby immediate distress.

She was later allowed to live at her family's home with her parents under the care of her maternal grandmother and she has not suffered any further harm.

Judge Eleanor Owens found one of the parents would have known they caused the injury but she could not conclude which one.

She found it had been caused by a "very forceful twisting or rotational action coupled with a compressive, or a pulling, force" far beyond that involved in normal childcare, but it would not have been deliberate.

While she said it was clear the parents love their daughter, the injury was probably caused in a "momentary lapse" by one of them, "the precise details of which…have not yet been disclosed".

The parents and the baby cannot be named because of a court order.