M and R (Non-Accidental Injury: Possible Perpetrators)

[1]������� The names of the parties in this case have been anonymised in order to protect the children who the case is about.� Nothing must be published or reported which directly or indirectly leads to the identity of the children being revealed.

[2]������� This case involves two children � M and R.� The children were removed from the care of their parents in March 2016 when R who was then 10 months old was found to have fractures to both elbows and both shoulders.� The medical evidence which is now unchallenged is that these were significant fractures which do not occur with normal handling of a baby.� They are likely to have been caused in at least two separate incidents.

[3]������� This part of the hearing of the Trust�s application for care orders focussed on which adult or adults are in the pool of people who may have inflicted the injuries � the pool of possible perpetrators.� In this case three people were identified:

(iii)����� the paternal grandmother who helped her son and the mother care for the children from time to time during the period in which the injuries are likely to have been sustained by R.

[5]������� In the present case the application of that approach led me, at the conclusion of the hearing, to exclude the paternal grandmother from the pool.� Neither parent nor the Trust made any case that she should be in the pool.� While she had the opportunity to cause the injuries because she helped to care for R, there was nothing in the surrounding circumstances to suggest that she might have done so.�