Mum-to-be will fight on to keep baby

Oct 18 2007 by Ben Guy, The Journal

A PREGNANT woman who has been told by social services that her child will be taken from her at birth has had her appeal against the ruling turned down.

Fran Lyon has been told by a safeguarding children panel that her baby will be taken from her within 30 minutes of being born, because of the risk she poses to the child.

Ms Lyon, of St Hilda’s Road, Hexham, now faces the prospect of either seeking a judicial review of the ruling, or taking the matter to court in the days after the child, whom she has named Molly, is born.

She said: “It is just so difficult at the moment and we are just taking some time to consider what the best thing to do is.

“There is the option of going to a judicial review, but the problem with that is that you can be liable to pay costs if you lose, and those costs could be huge.

“My feeling is that this will end up in court after Molly is born and that it will come down to a magistrate to make a decision.

“It is going to go right to the wire and will end up in the absolutely ridiculous situation of me having just given birth but then having to go to court to try to keep her.”

Ms Lyon, 22, has been told her child will be taken from her because she is likely to suffer from Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, a condition in which a mother will make up an illness in her child or harm it to get attention.

She described what she had been through as horrific, but said she took some comfort from the support she had been offered.

She said: “I sometimes get stopped in the street by people who ask how I am and what’s going on.

“People have been very positive with me.”

Ms Lyon’s child is due to be born in early January.

At the moment, she is undergoing regular psychological assessment as instructed by social services, and is in “almost daily” contact with her solicitor over how best to keep her child.

Earlier this month, The Journal reported that Ms Lyon faced the prospect of having to move home because the amount of time taken up with the case was preventing her working enough to afford her rent.

A Northumberland County Council spokesman said: “We take our responsibilities to keep children safe extremely seriously.

“A recent rigorous inspection found Northumberland’s safeguarding arrangements to be good.

“Legally we are unable to comment on the detail of individual cases. But we can say that such cases can be very complex and involve a lot of information and various concerns relating to the safety of a child.

“Recommendations made by a multi-agency child protection conference are always discussed with the parent and are reviewed in light of assessment findings.”