Judge disagreeing with expert evidence – 2

Re B (Non-accidental injury: compelling medical evidence) [2002] EWCA CIV 902; [2002] 2 FLR 599 CA

The medical opinion was unanimous that the injuries to a 12-month-old child could not have gone unseen by the mother, even if she had not inflicted them. Nevertheless, the judge found that the mother’s cohabitant had inflicted the injuries and that she had no knowledge of them. The judge therefore rejected the application for a care order in respect of the mother’s 6-year-old child. The judge was wrong to reject the medical evidence without giving reasons why he set it aside, perhaps, for example, where he has other evidence which makes the uncontroverted medical evidence logically impossible. This did not exist in this present case.