Health is aware of five visits to healthcare centers of the mistreated one-month-old baby in Barcelona
The parents took the creature to a CAP and three hospitals, but not to Vall d'Hebron, where it was born and where the mother works as a nurse
BarcelonaThe Department of Health has launched an ex officio investigation to gather information on the baby under one month old who had to be admitted on March 16 to the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona due to serious injuries and alleged sexual assault, for which his parents have been in provisional prison since last Friday. As reported by El Periódico and confirmed by ARA, the ministry will collect information on the minor since his birth and review the reasons and pathologies he had presented until then. 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 finally being referred to the hospital that activated the child abuse protocol, Vall d'Hebron. Specifically, they took the child to CAP Roger de Flor, Hospital del Mar, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and Hospital Sant Pau, in this 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 possible child abuse and adolescence, which for cases like this foresees the immediate withdrawal of custody 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 are 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 informed sources, the infant was conceived through assisted reproduction techniques.
Among the arguments put forward by the Prosecutor's Office to request the parents' imprisonment is the risk that the assaults would continue and the possibility that the arrestees might flee given the severity of the penalties they face. The Prosecutor's Office also saw the risk that the parents could "infringe upon the child's legal rights"; for all these reasons, it 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 the moment suspicions focus on the couple, who denied before the judge having mistreated their son, but gave incongruous 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 (aunts or grandparents) is prioritized, but the most likely option is also that an emergency family, one of the modalities of voluntary foster care, takes care of the baby for the next six months to allow time for technical teams to diagnose the situation, determine the child's condition, and propose the best option for the future. In practice, stays with these families often extend beyond six months 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 mistreating 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 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 of the Court of Tarragona has ended up acquitting the mother, who was also in provisional prison investigated for ill-treatment.