Parents Vow To Get 'Stolen' Baby Back

The parents of a baby taken into care and adopted have vowed to fight until their "last breath" to be reunited with their child after a court cleared them of abuse.

Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter were found not guilty of causing injury to their baby more than three years after they took the infant to hospital.

The baby was bleeding from the mouth.

Doctors also found bruising on the baby's body and "healing fractures" on an X-ray and feared that it had been abused.

They recommended the child be taken into care by social services, which later found adoptive parents following a ruling of abuse by the family courts.

Now, after being cleared of any charges, the parents have said they plan to launch a legal battle to overturn the adoption.

However, lawyers have expressed doubts they will ever see the child again.

In a statement, the pair, both 25, said: "We took our child to the hospital seeking help and they stole our baby from us."

The couple were vindicated at Guildford Crown Court after defence experts found the child was suffering from a blood disorder called Von Willebrands II.

The disorder causes a person to bruise easily. The child was also suffering from a vitamin D deficiency and infantile rickets.

After contesting the defence expert evidence, the prosecution engaged an independent radiologist, who concluded he doubted there were any fractures.

That led prosecutors to offer no evidence and not guilty verdicts to be entered.

The couple, from Guildford, Surrey, had been allowed supervised contact with the child when in care until the youngster was adopted last year.

Ms Cox told the Daily Mirror: "It is heartbreaking to know our child is out there, living and breathing in someone else's arms.

"We miss our child a lot. We wish we had our child back. The pain has never got any less. We see people out and about with their children and can only think, 'Why us?' Why did they take our child away from us for no reason?"

Mr Carter, an Afghanistan war veteran, added: "We will fight till our last breath.

"No parent should go through this ever. This just rips your soul away from you. We wouldn't wish this on anyone.

"We keep each other strong. We have lost three and a half years. We had contact but have missed everything our child has done. We have missed all those memories."

The couple's barrister, Michael Turner QC, said: "These innocent parents have been spared a criminal conviction and a prison sentence for a crime they never committed.

"Their life sentence is that they are likely never to see their baby again."