Herts police officer admits calling newborn baby 'a whore'

He conceded he may have been "heavy-handed", but denies causing multiple bruises to his little girl when she was just days old.

Bruises were found on the newborn's calf, thigh, back and abdomen by a health visitor during a home visit, with various explanations given by her father, including that a bottle had fallen on the baby and that their family dog may have trampled on her.

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The baby was placed under police protection on October 29 last year and her parents - who live in Hertfordshire, but cannot be identified for legal reasons - were arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.

Prosecution has not been pursued by the police, but the baby has since remained in foster care.

A fact-finding hearing held in the family court sitting at Watford, to help determine if the baby can return to the parents, concluded that the newborn had been "exposed to a domestically abusive and volatile relationship which included controlling behaviour exhibited by the father", the decision says.

The couple had met on Tinder, quickly moved in together and were expecting a baby within three months of meeting.

They were still in a relationship at the time of the hearing.

The court found the father has a temper, throws and smashes things, has been regularly abusive to the mother and frightens her.

It found the father called the mother obscene names, even when pregnant, irritating and annoying, and she could never win in an argument.

The father admitted that the mother always being in the wrong reflected the nature of his relationship with her, and said that if he had been on duty and a person had described their relationship in the way he accepted, he would have categorised it as abusive and controlling.

He admitted having a temper, but wrote in a text to his aunt: "I can control it and it would never be taken out on a three-week-old baby that’s my flesh and blood and that I love dearly.”

The court discovered there had been a pact made at a family meeting with extended relatives not to mention the father calling his little girl "an attention-seeking whore", which he later admitted.

"The lies started, it appears, from the minute the health visitor arrived at the home," the court judgment says.

Texts showed an occasion when the father had looked after his daughter for 13 minutes and handed her back because he was not coping, referred to in texts as “losing his s***".

In a text from the mother to a friend, it says: "He’s not bonding with her at all. He hates her."

An expert in bruising said the thigh injury could have been caused by a bottle falling but, on the balance of probability, the other bruises were "inflicted by a gripping/squeezing action of direct application of force".

The judgment says: "This case is about how the child sustained bruising, her lived experiences in her first 26 days, and adults who failed to protect her and have lied to protect themselves or others.

"It is disappointing to note that a serving police officer would choose to lie or minimise during a police interview.

"It is also concerning to note that WhatsApp had been deleted off father’s phone by the time it was taken by the police."

It says: "This was a dysfunctional, enmeshed relationship with an imbalance in power dynamics, showing all the elements of a controlling relationship", and that "the mother was aware of the issues with father and put her relationship with father above the safety of the child".

The court found that "the injuries were significant" and "required application of force", and said it is satisfied at least three of the four injuries were inflicted and "there is no innocent explanation".

The decision concludes that "the constellation of injuries without clear explanation makes it unlikely they were all sustained in a single incident" and that "the wealth of evidence points to father causing the bruises".

The father’s counsel accepted that he is likely to lose his job as a result of his evidence in this case, which is ongoing.

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