Another story involving Professor David Southall
Woman's Own Magazine 20 January 2000 issue
MY 10-YEAR OLD SON KILLED HIMSELF AND POLICE ACCUSED ME
When her son took his own life because he was being bullied, his grief-stricken mum
Mandy Morris was suspected of killing him - on the whim of a man who'd never met
her. Worse still, social services took her younger son away and for six weeks, Mandy
wasn't even allowed to speak to him alone.
BY CAROLINE REID
Visitors to the bustling
maternity ward couldn't help but smile at the boy cradling his newborn sister. The
look of delight which passed between the 11-year-old and his mum suggested that this
was a very special baby. And she is. For little Ellie represents the end of a nightmare
which Mandy Morris feared would destroy herself and her family.
'The joy of having
Ellie last November helped ease the pain as Mandy from Oswestry Salop, 'For the first
time in ages, we're looking forward to the future.' But she'll never forget the horrific
events of June 6, 1996. Just after 4pm, her 10-year old son Lee arrived home from
football practice. He had his usual bowl of cereal, watched TV and then went to his
room. Later, Mandy nipped upstairs and noticed that Lee's door was open and his curtains
drawn. 'I remember thinking that was odd,' she recalls. 'And then I saw him.'
Mandy
tried in vain to resuscitate her son, who'd hanged himself from a belt tied to the
curtain rail. 'Even as I was giving him mouth-to-mouth, I knew it was hopeless,'
she says, blinking back the tears. An inquest the following month concluded it was
impossible to know whether Lee had intended to kill himself or had done so accidentally.
An open verdict was returned. 'The death of a child is so devastating,' says Mandy,
34, 'Your mind refuses to accept it. For months I woke in the night convinced I'd
heard Lee calling me. 'I couldn't bear to think that my son was desperately unhappy,
and I didn't suspect a thing. I felt I'd failed him.' It was this natural feeling
of guilt which, Mandy claims, saw her branded a murder suspect - and resulted in
her other son Dale, then eight, being taken into care.
A year before his death, Lee
had come home from school in tears because his classmates were picking on him, and
Mandy had comforted him. When the teasing continued. she went to see his headmaster.
'I was reassured that they didn't tolerate bullying in the school,' she says. 'Lee
was receiving extra help with reading and writing and that singled him out. As the
months passed he seemed happier I'd ask how his day had been, and the response was
always positive. 'The morning before be died, I had a call from the school to say
he'd been put on report for misbehaving. He seemed a bit subdued when he came home
and I told him we'd discuss it after tea. 'So often since, I've wished I'd stopped
and talked to him. I'm tormented with the thought that I could have said or done
something to stop him doing what he did.' Lee's death had a profound effect on his
brother Dale. 'He'd shut himself in his room and I'd hear him sobbing. He became
isolated and withdrawn, says Mandy. ' There were just two years between them and
they were really close.'
She continues: 'One night Dale crept into our bed. He told
me he'd had a funny feeling in his tummy ever since Lee had died and that so sometimes
he felt like hurting himself. I didn't really believe Dale would harm himself, but
I was overwhelmed by fear and panic.' Mandy took her son to their GP who arranged
for him to see a child psychologist. 'I found out that when Dale had moved up a year
at school, he'd been given Lee's old seat. He even had nightmares where shadowy figures
came to take him away.' Mandy talked to her bosses in the hospital where she worked
and was granted compassionate leave. 'Because of what had happened to Lee. I couldn't
help feeling paranoid. I'd follow Dale around the house, checking he was all right.
If he seemed down, I'd worry it was depression. The slightest sniffle and we'd be
at the surgery. 'But the counselling helped him make sense of his feelings and he
started to see things more positively.'
Then, in January 1998, as Mandy and her husband
Simon, a 35-year-old plant operator, were preparing to move with Dale into a new
home, there was a knock at the door. 'Two police officers were standing there,' recalls
Mandy, 'I invited them in and they told me they were waiting for somebody from social
services.' Soon after, a man and woman arrived from the Child and Family Unit with
an Emergency Protection Order to put Dale in a place of safety. 'At first I couldn't
understand what was going on, or why ' says Mandy. 'Then I realised they were suggesting
I'd killed Lee - and that I might do the same to Dale. Dale was staying with a friend
at the time and I wouldn't tell them where he was. Simon was at work and I was taken
alone to the Police station and questioned for two hours.'
Mandy learned that a controversial
psychiatrist believed that she was suffering from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy
The condition that causes people - like serial baby-killer Beverley Allitt - to harm
others as a way of attracting attention. A former colleague of Mandy's had discussed
Lee's death, and Mandy's concerns about Dale. with Professor David Southall - and,
without meeting her, he'd drawn his own conclusion. 'It was heart-breaking to lose
Lee.' says Mandy. 'But to be accused of killing him was unforgivable.' By the time
Mandy was released from custody, Dale had been placed in the care of foster parents
25 miles away in Market Drayton,
Police later re-examined the bedroom where Lee had
killed himself. 'It was implied that I'd drugged Lee then tied him to the rail to
make it look like suicide,' says Mandy. 'It was like something from a movie script.'
It was 6 weeks before Mandy and Simon were reunited with their son. 'At first I wasn't
allowed contact with Dale. Simon would speak to him on the phone and I'd sit really
close, so I could hear his voice. He'd cry and ask when he could come home. We tried
to be as honest as possible. Simon explained that a doctor thought I was poorly and
that was why he had to stay with the foster family.'
At a three-day hearing at Telford
County Court, Shropshire County Council applied for an interim care order. But they
failed to produce evidence that Mandy suffered from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy
and the judge rejected the application, ordering that Dale be returned to his parents.
'We drove straight to the foster parents' house.' says Mandy, 'Dale was waiting with
his bogs packed, It felt wonderful to have him in my arms again.'
Police and social
services have completed their investigation and Dale has now been taken off the 'at
risk' register. 'I agreed to be examined by Professor Southall to disprove his theory,'
says Mandy. 'But he looked at me and said he believed I'd murdered Lee and made it
look like suicide. What do you say to that? ' It's not the first time the professor
has sparked controversy. He wounded mothers like TV presenter Anne Diamond when he
said that in some cot death cases, the babies had been smothered. A regional health
authority inquiry is currently looking into the issues raised by this and similar
cases. 'Dale still has nightmares and I worry about how all this will affect him.
When I handed Ellie to him after she was born, he whispered: "I won't let anyone
hurt her, Mummy." I know how he feels.'
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