'Twin-Swap' Couple Guilty Of Child Cruelty

I will never cease to be amazed

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Couple-Guilty-Of-Child-Cruelty-And-Neglect-Allegedly-Swapped-Twins-For-Social-Workers/Article/201107416037806?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_16037806_Couple_Guilty_Of_Child_Cruelty_And_Neglect%2C_Allegedly_Swapped_Twins_For_Social_Workers

Mohammed and Nafisa Korolia are found guilty of child cruelty and neglect at Preston Crown Court.

The couple allegedly concealed the neglect of their baby daughter by showing social workers her healthy twin sister.

The Karolias inflicted more than 20 injuries on the seven-month-old baby including a fractured rib, arm and leg.

The child, known as Girl M, also suffered two brain bleeds, bruises to the face and bleeding to the eyes.

The injuries were described at Preston Crown Court as "a battery of non-accidental injuries".

A jury heard that whenever social workers or health visitors called the parents are believed to have shown them Girl M's uninjured sister and made up excuses for why their other child was not at home.

The court heard that 29-year-old Mohammed Karolia, of Blackburn, Lancashire, noticed one morning that his daughter was struggling to breath.

The baby was taken to hospital but died of bronchopneumonia. The couple were not held responsible for the deaths.

Joe Boyd, prosecuting, told the court the injuries had been wilfully inflicted.

"The sheer number of injuries, the number of different and separate incidents there must have been to cause them, the timescale from months to hours before death in which they were caused and the lack of any plausible explanation from the parents as to how they were caused, leads inexplicably to the conclusion that they were inflicted deliberately," he said.

Mr Boyd added: "Both parents were making a concerted effort to keep Girl M out of the way of the nurse and the social worker so that they would not suspect the ill-treatment she was suffering."

He said the alleged identity swap was uncovered by discrepancies in the head, weight and height measurements previously taken from Girl M and her sister.

"Growth charts for both twins make it clear that the parents have at some stage swapped the babies," Mr Boyd told the jury.

"They have very probably done so to seek to conceal the mounting injuries being suffered by the child who died - always the bigger twin but, for some reason, rejected and abused by them."

Mohammed Karolia, a taxi driver, and his 22-year-old wife denied the charges of child cruelty and neglect.

Well, call me cynical but there are Asian/Muslim couples who just want boy children. Two girls means having to find two husbands and pay out a small fortune for each to the groom's family.

How can people be so cruel!!!!! a tiny defenceless baby,and yet again Social services found wanting. Had they insisted at some time on seeing both
girls, remembering how little Peter died, this little girl might be alive now.

This is utterly incredible the Social Services can be fooled like this. Such a dreadful and unbelievable thing for parents to do to their own child.

So much for "Lessons will be learnt" - yet again!