Father found guilty of poisoning child

The BBC reports on how a father from the North East has been found guilty of poisoning his own child. Apparently his motive was to create a situation whereby he could stay at the mother’s house for a longer period of time. He was convicted of unlawfully administration of a poison, child cruelty and attempted murder.

This is a disturbing case, which demonstrates how some parents use their own children to engineer a particular situation, and in some cases are prepared to make them seriously ill.  

One condition which has been reported in the family courts is Munchausen by Proxy, where the parent makes the child ill so as to gain attention for himself/herself. From the child’s point of view, their life is put at risk time and time again, until the authorities become aware and take action. In this case, samples of codeine and a painkiller, Tramadol were found in the child’s system.

The father had apparently met the mother on an online dating agency. The fact that their relationship began on the internet is not indicative of a child protection issue or indeed an indication that the mother in some way should have known about this man’s propensity to violence. The internet is simply another tool that male abusers to use, in order to target vulnerable women.