Mother jailed in UK over baby’s injuries blames former partner at appeal

 The Guardian UK

Hannah Summers

Thu 28 Oct 2021 

A woman has told the appeal court her controlling boyfriend, who ‘petrified her’, led her to lie at the original trial about how her baby came to be harmed.

A mother imprisoned for causing serious harm to her baby has told the courtm of appeal she lied at her trial because of the control her former boyfriend had

 The woman, known as Jenny, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told fractures and bleeding on the brain in June 2017.

The landmark hearing has the potential to change the way coercive control is understood in cases where a victim feels that abuse has led them to lie in court.

At the original trial the woman, Jenny, said she caught her cardigan on a cupboard door while preparing her son’s feed, causing him to fall to a concrete floor.

She was given a 10-year extended sentence, later reduced to five. 

On Thursday she told judges the baby’s father punched her in the head as she held their son, causing them both to fall.

Addressing Lady Justice Macur, Mr Justice Jay and Mr Justice Murray, she described how she rose at 1am to make a bottle as her partner arrived home.

“He was wide-eyed and sweating and I knew he was on crack cocaine,” she said. “He had an evil look in his eye … I was petrified.” It was then, she said, that he punched her unconscious.

When she came round the baby was on the floor,  She claimed she was unable to tell police the truth because her boyfriend was present. “I did not want to anger him or agitate him as he [was holdingmy baby.”

It is rare for a case to be re-examined where an applicant is altering their testimony, however Paramjit Ahluwalia, a barrister, asked judges to consider

the exceptional circumstances, saying that coercive control played a crucial role in preventing Jenny from giving a true account, so the conviction was unsafe.

Lawyers presented a file of fresh evidence including medical and police records to the judges. Records show Jenny was diagnosed with “postconcussion

syndrome” on the night of the incident and a contemporaneous note of a hand injury to her partner’s fist was not disclosed at trial.

One expert psychologist said the abuse Jenny had suffered, including being locked up, deprived of sleep and food, and urinated on, amounted to

“torture”.Giving evidence the mother-of-three said her partner would control her movements, finances and relationships, leading her to question her sanity. “I

knew I was not safe, he made me think that everyone was against me and I was crazy and that no one would believe me.”

She moved into her own flat in August 2017, however he tracked her down, escorting her to and from court where he sat next to her as her co-defendant and was acquitted on a lesser charge.

Jenny said: “He was there looking at me, listening to my every word. During

the trial he would regularly turn up at my address and assault me … he would punch me and drag me by my hair and clothes.”

While in prison, in February 2018, Jenny said she felt safe enough to disclose the abuse and wrote to her legal team.

Representing the Crown, John Price QC said the appeal was seeking a “second bite at the cherry”. He said: “The evidence the applicant gave introduces nothing new about the degree of force with which the child struck the floor – whether that was caused by a cardigan catching or by a punch.” jury the truth. “We submit there is no credible explanation for that,” he said. shouted that she had thrown the baby and she replied: “I was feeding the child, you hit me and that is how the baby dropped.” agreement to further their mutual interests”. 

Macur acknowledged that coercive control victims could find themselves isolated. But she added: “I keep coming back to that incident. We have still

got to make a decision about whether her evidence is worthy of belief.”A verdict will be delivered later.