Court Report: Threshold criteria met in care case

The children's mother had withdrawn the children from school, forcing them to remain in a room with very little contact with the outside world.

In this case, the Court had to consider whether the threshold criteria had been met so that an order could be made that the other children be placed in care. In order to determine whether the threshold criteria were met, the Court had to decide on the balance of probabilities whether the children were suffering, or were likely to suffer significant harm if not placed in care.

A number of doctors and other medical professionals gave evidence that they had never seen such severe cases of starvation while working in the UK and reported that one of the surviving children was suffering with re-feeding syndrome. In light of this evidence, the court held that the threshold criteria had been met for all of the children.