File photo used only for illustrative purpose A report by Metro UK has revealed that a mother forced her two children to use wheelc...
File photo used only for illustrative purpose
A report by Metro UK has revealed that a mother forced her two children to use wheelchairs and faked their illnesses for years, a court has heard.
The mother, who has not been identified, exaggerated the symptoms of her nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, leading to them ‘unnecessarily’ spending a lot of time at hospital, a family court judge said.
Judge Vera Mayer also said a social worker who worked on the family’s case for six years had demonstrated ‘alarming ineptitude’ after failing to raise ‘clear and obvious concerns’ about the children.
The judge had raised concerns in rulings recently published after private hearings in a family court in Barnet, north London.
Though not identifying the children, Judge Mayer said Barnet Council was the local authority involved.
She said: ‘The local authority neglected this case and this family, and the social worker, who was allocated for six years, demonstrated alarming ineptitude in the face of clear and obvious concerns expressed by many over a long period.’
‘A number of opportunities to intervene and spare the children unnecessary medical intervention have been missed.’
She added: ‘The mother fabricated and exaggerated symptoms in respect of both children. She has done this throughout the children’s lives.
‘She gave untruthful information to persons in the medical profession, and to those involved with the children in the course of their education/care.
‘Consequently, the children were subjected to a great number of unnecessary medical appointments, unnecessary attendances at A&E, unnecessary journeys in ambulances and, at times, to unnecessary admissions to hospital.
‘Both children were unnecessarily medicated. They were both unnecessarily immobilised by spending time in wheelchairs.’
A psychiatrist said evidence suggested the children’s mother had mental health difficulties which led her to invent illness or become anxious about illnesses which did not exist, said the judge.
The specialist had said the woman might be suffering from factitious disorder or somatic symptom disorder.
Judge Mayer said the children’s father had thought their mother had been telling the truth.
The judge concluded the children could no longer live with their parents and should go into council care and be looked after by foster carers.
