Health is aware of five visits to health centers of the abused one-month-old baby in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe Department of Health has initiated an ex officio investigation to gather information on the newborn, less than a month old, who had to be admitted on March 16th to Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona for serious injuries and alleged sexual assault, and for which their 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 from birth and review the reasons and pathologies they had presented up to that point. For now, it is known that the child passed through at least four healthcare centers – three hospitals and one primary care center (CAP) – days before the child abuse protocol was activated for various reasons and of different severity, such as fever and vomiting.

El Periódico and confirmed by ARA, the ministry will collect information on the minor from birth and review the reasons and pathologies they had presented up to that point. For now, it is known that the child passed through at least four healthcare centers – three hospitals and one primary care center (CAP) – days before the child abuse protocol was activated for various reasons and of different severity, such as 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 center that activated the child abuse protocol, Vall d'Hebron. Specifically, they took the child to the CAP Roger de Flor, to the Hospital del Mar, to the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and to the Hospital Sant Pau, on two occasions in this latter case. During one of these consultations at Sant Pau, on March 16th, healthcare professionals activated the child abuse protocol and transferred the newborn 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 they request it.

The same hospital alerted the Mossos d'Esquadra and, in response, the General Directorate for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) activated the Urgent Care Service for Child and Adolescent Maltreatment (SAUM) and the protocol for action in cases of possible child and adolescent maltreatment, which for cases like this provides for the immediate removal of parental custody. Since then, the newborn has been under the protection of the Generalitat and remains hospitalized in serious condition. In fact, it is believed that they 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 one month old. The couple was arrested last Wednesday, March 18, and on Friday they were 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 High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). Neither of them had any prior criminal record, and the mother works as a nurse at Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. According to sources familiar with the case, the infant was conceived through assisted reproduction techniques.

Among the arguments put forward by the Prosecutor's Office to request the parents' imprisonment are the risk that the assaults 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 "attack the legal rights of the minor"; 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 now, suspicions focus on the couple, who denied mistreating their son before the judge but gave inconsistent and contradictory explanations about the origin of the injuries.

Background in Montblanc

Generally, when it comes to such a small child, efforts are made to prevent them 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/uncles or grandparents) is prioritized, but the most likely option is also that an emergency foster family, one of the modalities of voluntary care, takes care of the baby for the next six months to give 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, 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 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 of the Audiència de Tarragona has ended up acquitting the mother, who was also in provisional prison investigated for mistreatment.