Guildford couple cleared of abuse fight to get child back

Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter said they now regretted taking their child to hospital

The parents of a baby taken into care at six weeks old and later adopted have vowed to fight to get their child back after a court cleared them of abuse.

Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter faced assault charges after hospital staff found bruises on the baby and X-rays appeared to show fractures.

The couple, both 25, from Guildford in Surrey, were found not guilty of causing injury to their baby this week.

Ms Cox said: "We've been found innocent and we can't have our child back."

She added: "It's a weight lifted that the criminal proceedings are not going any further, but now it's a fight to try to win our child back."

Ms Cox said she felt it would do "more damage" to leave the child with adoptive parents, only for it to be told when it was older why it had been taken away.

Maintained innocence

The child was adopted in March while the case against the couple was still ongoing.

They had maintained their innocence since taking the baby to hospital in April 2012 after they spotted blood in its mouth.

Doctors fearing child abuse recommended the youngster be taken into care by social services, which later found adoptive parents following a ruling of abuse by the family courts.

However, during a trial at Guildford Crown Court, defence lawyers argued the X-rays were consistent with rickets and the bruising with von Willebrand disease.

The prosecution also conceded that one of their own medical experts could not be sure the X-rays showed fractures. Jurors were told to record not guilty verdicts.

"Guilty until proven innocent"

Ms Cox said she and her partner had been let down by the system and they regretted taking their child to hospital in the first place.

"It felt more like guilty until proven innocent... we tried to give explanations," she said.

Mr Carter said they had been "treated like animals" by social services.

"They just constantly look down their noses at you, because we were young parents - first time. That's my view of it anyway.

"I'd say you need to treat people more fairly, more equal, as if everyone's just normal people, not different races, not different backgrounds, nothing, just everyone the way that they are."

He added: "I'm more than determined to get my child back - it's my child and I will go down fighting."

In a statement, Surrey County Council said: "Any case like this is really difficult and we're always sensitive to the distress it will cause all involved, but our main concern has to be the welfare of the child.

"Our decision in this case was taken on the basis of the medical evidence provided and the finding of the family court, which, having heard the evidence, took the view it was right for the child to be removed from its parents."