20 April 2012

Inquiry Into Hospitals Called For By Parents Cleared Of Murdering Baby

The young couple cleared on charges of murdering their baby have called for an inquiry into two hospitals responsible for his care.

Four-month-old Jayden died of brain damage after a fractured skull in 2009. Parents, Rohan Wray, 22, and Chana al-Alas, 19, from Islington in north London, were accused of abusing the baby boy.

However, it was only after he died that doctors discovered the youngster was suffering from severe rickets, a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency, which causes bones to become soft.

The couple blame Great Ormond Street and University College hospitals for their son’s death, saying they should have diagnosed the problem earlier.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday they said they believed Jayden would still be alive had his condition been correctly diagnosed.

Wray said staff at University College hospital asked him how his baby’s injuries had occurred: "I said apart from him rolling over in his cot and hitting his head on the side of the bars I can't think of any other explanation because we haven't dropped him, nothing's dropped on him," he said.

"The look from them was that simply they didn't believe my explanation."

Al-Alas said they were prevented from seeing Jayden after he was transferred to Great Ormond Street and later learned the hospital had spent four hours getting his injuries scanned.

Describing the past two years as "horrible", Wray added: "I really feel that they didn't really know what they were doing and they just pre-judged us way too early.

"You should actually be treated as innocent until proven guilty and not guilty until proven innocent."

Cleared of the charges at the Old Bailey last December the couple then faced further allegations over the child's death in the civil family courts from the local authority, in whose care their daughter Jayda had been since her birth in October 2010, when her parents were charged with the murder of her brother.

The case brought by the London borough of Islington claimed that Jayden "died as a result of inflicted trauma caused to him whilst in the care of the parents".

It was further alleged that he suffered "a number of fractures that, despite having rickets, were caused by non-accidental injury". However, in a judgment made public on Thursday, Mrs Justice Theis, sitting at the high court's family division in London, ruled that the allegations against them had not been proved. Care proceedings in relation to Jayda were dismissed and she was returned to live with her parents.

(H)