Barking and Dagenham nurse shook baby son after losing control, judge rules

A senior NHS nurse shook her eight-month-old son after momentarily losing control, a family court judge has decided.

Judge Kate Purkiss was told that the little boy had suffered head injuries while his mother, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was on maternity leave.

The nurse said her son had fallen backwards, when holding on to a sofa, and hit his head.

But Judge Purkiss, sitting at the East London Family Court, said evidence indicated that the nurse had shaken the baby and thrown him on to a soft surface.

She said social services bosses at Barking and Dagenham Council had welfare responsibilities for the boy, now nearly two.

They had asked her to make decisions, on the balance of probabilities, about how the boy had been injured.

Doctors had noted bleeding on the boy’s brain and he had been treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Judge Purkiss said the child had recovered and been temporarily placed with a relative pending long-term decisions about his future.