The Prosecutor's Office requests to question all doctors who treated the abused one-month-old baby in Barcelona
Health is aware of five visits to health centers and that the parents did not go to Vall d'Hebron, where the creature was born and where the mother works
BarcelonaThe Department of Health has launched an ex officio investigation to gather information on a baby under one month old admitted on March 16 to Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona due to serious injuries and alleged sexual assault, for which his parents have been in provisional prison since Friday. As reported by El Periódico and confirmed by ARA, the ministry will collect information on the minor from birth and review the causes and pathologies he had suffered until then. In parallel, the Prosecutor's Office has asked the judge investigating the case to interrogate all the doctors who treated the infant to specify the symptoms he had and whether they had detected injuries that could be related to abuse. For now, it is known that the child went through at least four healthcare centers – three hospitals and a primary care center (CAP) – days before the child abuse protocol was activated for various reasons and of different severity, such as mild fever and vomiting.
The baby's parents – he is 42 years old and she is 43 – took him to various medical centers in the Catalan capital before being finally referred to the hospital that activated the child abuse protocol, Vall d'Hebron. Specifically, they took the child to the CAP Roger de Flor, the Hospital del Mar, the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and the Hospital Sant Pau; in this last case, twice. In one of these consultations at Sant Pau, on March 16, healthcare professionals activated the child abuse protocol and referred the baby to Vall d'Hebron, which is the reference center for these cases. All this information will be sent to the Mossos d'Esquadra or the judicial authority when requested.
The same hospital alerted the Mossos d'Esquadra and, in response, the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) activated the Urgent Care Service for Abuse of Children and Adolescents (SAUM) and the protocol for action in cases of suspected child abuse and adolescent abuse, which for cases like this foresees the immediate withdrawal of parental rights from the infant's parents. Since then, the baby has been under the protection of the Generalitat and remains hospitalized in serious condition. In fact, it is believed that he will suffer lifelong consequences.
The parents have been in provisional prison since last Friday, accused of the crimes of habitual mistreatment, very serious injuries, and sexual assault of their son, a child just over a month old. The couple was arrested last Wednesday, March 18, and on Friday was brought before the court for violence against children and adolescents in Barcelona. The magistrate sent them to provisional prison without bail, as explained by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). Neither of them had a criminal record, and the mother works as a nurse at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. According to knowledgeable sources, the infant was conceived through assisted reproduction techniques.
Among the arguments put forward by the Prosecutor's Office to request the parents' imprisonment were the risk that the abuse would continue and the possibility that the arrested individuals might flee given the severity of the penalties they face. The Prosecutor's Office also saw a risk that the parents could "infringe upon the child's legal rights"; for all these reasons, they requested provisional prison and the suspension of parental authority as precautionary measures. Although the investigation remains open and the baby's environment will be analyzed, for now, suspicions are focused on the couple, who denied having mistreated their son before the judge but provided inconsistent and contradictory explanations about the origin of the injuries.
Background in Montblanc
Generally, when dealing with such a small creature, efforts are made to prevent it from entering a reception center, where at the end of January there were 5,200 children in care. Normally, the baby's extended biological family (uncles or grandparents) is prioritized, but the most likely option is also that an emergency family, one of the forms of voluntary foster care, takes care of the baby for the next six months to allow technical teams time to diagnose the situation, determine the child's condition, and make a proposal on the best option for the future. In practice, the stay with these families extends beyond half a year and can last up to a year.
Another case that shocked Catalonia occurred in 2019 in Montblanc (Conca de Barberà). A man was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison for the mistreatment of his son when he was only one month old. The trial was to clarify whether the responsibility for the mistreatment lay with the father, who was 22 years old at the time; the mother, who was 21, or both. Both the man and the woman spent a few months in provisional prison
and both went to trial in July as defendants.
At the last moment, the private prosecution of the Generalitat withdrew the accusation against the woman. The child, who is now five years old, suffers from sequelae that have caused him a 70% disability. The sentence from the Court of Tarragona has ended up acquitting the mother, who was also in provisional prison investigated for mistreatment.