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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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A mother is angry she lost most of
the first year of her young son's life after being wrongly suspected of
harming him to gain attention for herself. It took a prolonged Family Court
battle for the woman to prove she did not have Munchausen's syndrome by proxy
(MSBP) - and to regain custody of her son. Now she and her husband want an
apology from CYF. The Wellington couple, who cannot be identified for legal reasons,
felt powerless during the long fight for their child. "I felt like all
fingers were pointed at us," said the father. Their baby was just nine weeks old
when he was taken into care by CYF last December. He suffered repeated
choking attacks (apnoea ) and, when hospital doctors suggested there was no
physical reason for the apnoea, suspicion fell on his mother. She and her husband had lost their
first son to suspected cot death following a respiratory virus a year
earlier. He had also needed to be revived a number of times before his death,
aged five months. The coroner's file into the November 2004 death remains
open. His parents were devastated by his
death but their grief began to lift when she became pregnant again. Their
second son was born last October. When he was a month old, he
suddenly stopped breathing while his mother was changing his nappy. She
revived him and he was admitted to hospital where he continued to have
choking attacks over the next couple of weeks. But without warning, the mother
was banned from the hospital and CYF obtained a "place of safety
warrant", giving it control of the baby's care. It came as a "complete
shock" to learn their paediatrician had reported them to CYF saying
there was no apparent medical reason for the baby's attacks and that the
mother had been alone with the baby "for a significant period of
time". That decision was backed by another paediatrician, who reviewed
both babies' medical files for police. "They never let on that I was
under suspicion," the mother said. She was suspected of having MSBP,
a mental disorder in which caregivers induce symptoms in their children to
gain attention. In early December, the baby was discharged to a foster
family. His parents were allowed three three- hour visits a week, usually in
an office. The couple continued to fight to
have their baby returned and, in March, an Australasian forensic
paediatrician reviewed the medical files for the court and concluded there
was no evidence the mother had harmed either of her children. He said their older son may have
died from a respiratory virus. The baby and his father were subsequently
diagnosed with sleep apnoea - a condition in which they can suddenly stop
breathing in their sleep. However, the medical evidence was
not enough to persuade CYF to drop its bid for custody and the battle went to
court in July. The mother agreed to undergo
psychosocial assessment and a psychiatrist found no evidence of any mental
illness - including MSBP - or voiced any concerns about her parenting
ability. Following the six-day Family Court
hearing, Judge Bernard Kendall said he believed they were "a strong and
committed young couple". He declined CYF's custody application. The couple's son finally came home
in August. They say he shows no long- term effects from the months of
separation. And now they're looking forward to
the birth of another child next month. "I'd rather have sleepless
nights because of crying babies than lying awake wondering what's happening
to my son. We lost all those months of our baby's life that we can never have
back," the father said. "We understand that CYF has a
job to do and they have to act on complaints. But it's the way in which we
were treated that's the upsetting thing," said the mother. Australian anti-MSBP campaigner
Michael Nott says it is "almost impossible" for women who are
falsely accused to clear their names. The man who coined the term MSBP,
Sir Roy Meadow, claimed "one cot death is a tragedy, two is suspicious
and three is murder". He was struck off by the British General Medical
Council last July for serious professional misconduct over his evidence in
three high-profile cases involving women who were subsequently cleared of
charges of murdering their babies. The clinical director of the Auckland
regional forensic psychiatry service, Dr Sandy Simpson, who has given
evidence in several cases involving MSBP, said it was regarded as being
"a rare form of child abuse" rather than a mental illness. While clinicians had to be
vigilant against child abuse, there was "international evidence of
over-diagnosis". "If you get it wrong, you
risk exposing children to abuse, or disrupting their relationships with key
people in their lives. "In situations like this, you
are juggling competing risks all the time ... it's a minefield." |
