The woman who won't
be allowed to keep her baby
- just in
case she harms it
Daily Mail
By STEVE DOUGHTY and PAUL SIMS
19th October 2007
A mother-to-be faces losing her baby within minutes of its birth because
social workers fear she will harm the child.
Fran Lyon, 22, has been told she cannot be trusted with a newborn because she
is likely to suffer from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy.
The condition is said to lead mothers to seek attention by harming their child
or claiming it is ill.
Cry for help: Fran Lyon insists she will not hurt her child
Miss Lyon insisted yesterday that the mental health problems she had as a
teenager were behind her. She also appealed for a place in a mother and baby
unit so that she could look after her child under supervision.
"I would be happy to stay for as long as it takes," she said. "At the end of
the day I have nothing to hide so why would I have a problem going? I know
there is nothing wrong.
"I'm not depressed, although I have every right to be. I'm not struggling to
cope."
Miss Lyon's child - a girl to be called Molly - is due in January.
"I know I wouldn't hurt her," she said. "I would quite happily have 24-hour
supervision with a perfect stranger sat with me watching my every move.
"All I want is a chance to be Molly's mum."
Social workers told Miss Lyon last week that her child will be taken from her
within 30 minutes of birth.
Munchausen's has been at the heart of a series of miscarriages of justice.
Sir Roy Meadow, a discredited paediatrician who helped develop theories about
the condition, was responsible for evidence that led to the wrongful
convictions of Angela Cannings and Sally Clark for murdering their children.
Miss Clark died earlier this year, after, friends said, turning to alcohol
following her release from prison.
Miss Lyon, from Hexham in Northumberland, started self-harming at the age of
15 and has been treated at psychiatric hospitals for borderline personality
disorder.
She said a domestic incident in July led to the involvement of social services
who became concerned by her pregnancy.
"I told them that I had mental health problems when I was a lot younger and
that I had since moved on and now had a normal life," said Miss Lyon.
"I assumed that would be the end of it but the next thing I know they were
going to a child protection conference.
"I am living with this constant notion that someone might walk into the
delivery suite and take my baby away."
Her case has been taken up by Lib-Democrat MP John Hemming who has been
campaigning against adoption of babies.
"The whole family court system, because of the secrecy which surrounds it, is
vulnerable to bad practice," he said.
"Social workers are under pressure not to lose cases."
Family courts set up adoption orders and make decisions about children thought
to be at risk. The evidence and the reasoning behind rulings are rarely made
public.
A spokesman for Northumberland County Council said: "Legally we are unable to
comment on the detail of individual cases.
"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."
Dr Stella Newrith, a psychiatrist who has treated Miss Lyon, said she had made
a significant recovery.
In a letter to Northumberland Council, she stated: "There has never been any
clinical evidence to suggest Fran would put herself or others at risk and
there is certainly no evidence to suggest she would put a child at risk of
emotional, physical or sexual harm."
• Munchausen's syndrome by proxy was identified in the 1970s by paediatrician
Sir Roy Meadow. It can take the form of fabricated illness where a parent
claims a child is ill by making up symptoms.
In a more vicious form, illness is actually induced, with the parent
inflicting harm on the child.
Professor Meadow's research at the University of Leeds cited a case of a woman
who poisoned her child with salt and that of another mother who tampered with
blood samples to make her child seem ill.
The theory became increasingly influential and in 1993 the professor's
evidence helped convict nurse Beverley Allitt of the murders of four children.
But the Angela Cannings and Sally Clark miscarriages of justice wrecked
Professor Meadow's reputation because he had been an expert witness. Some now
question whether Munchausen's exists.
