A (Care Order)

This judgment was delivered in private. The judge has given leave for this version of the judgment to be published on condition that (irrespective of what is contained in the judgment) in any published version of the judgment the anonymity of the children and members of their family must be strictly preserved. All persons, including representatives of the media, must ensure that this condition is strictly complied with. Failure to do so will be a contempt of court.

The law to be applied when considering the issues before the court is well settled.� When considering the findings sought by the local authority the court applies the following well established principles.

The burden of proving the facts pleaded rests with the local authority.� In cases of alleged inflicted injury, it is for the local authority to establish on the balance of probabilities that the injuries in question were inflicted.� There is no requirement on the parents to show that the injuries have an innocent explanation.�

The standard to which the local authority must satisfy the court is the simple balance of probabilities.� The inherent probability or improbability of an event remains a matter to be taken into account when weighing the probabilities and deciding whether, on balance, the event occurred ( Re B [2008] UKHL 35 at [15]).�� Within this context, there is no room for a finding by the court that something might have happened.� The court may decide that it did or that it did not ( Re B [2008] UKHL 35 at [2]).�

Findings of fact must be based on evidence not on speculation.� The decision on whether the facts in issue have been proved to the requisite standard must be based on all of the available evidence and should have regard to the wide context of social, emotional, ethical and moral factors ( A County Council v A Mother, A Father and X, Y and Z [2005] EWHC 31 (Fam) ).�