Child battered for not eating dinner in Kilmarnock was like a ‘Romanian orphan’

By GRANT MCCABE
Published on 25/10/2012 00:00

A NEGLECTED child was left for weeks with brain injuries after he was assaulted because he would not eat his dinner, a court heard.

The two-year-old boy was attacked by 22-year-old Alix Bluck who – along with her then partner James Bluck – was supposedly caring for him.

One visitor to the child’s home in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, described him as looking like a “Romanian orphan” as he lay on a mattress in an almost bare room.

The boy eventually got medical help in March last year and was found to have haemorrhages on both sides of his brain.

He has been left with permanently reduced vision in one eye as a result of his ordeal.

A judge heard how Bluck told police she had “lost her temper” with the child, while her 35-year-old ex-partner claimed he “never neglected” the boy.

Bluck yesterday admitted assaulting the child when she appeared at Glasgow’s High Court.

She and her former partner also pled guilty to a charge under the Children and Young Persons Act.

Both will learn their fate when they return to the dock to be sentenced next month.

In March last year, salesman William McLeod visited the Blucks’ home to measure for windows and doors.

Mr McLeod saw a young boy lying in a room, which had few toys in it and no furniture apart from a mattress.

Prosecutor Sheena Fraser said Mr McLeod later described the bruised child as “lying there staring at the ceiling”.

The salesman added: “I immediately got visions of posters or adverts years ago of Romanian orphans just lying or sitting on mattresses.”

Mr McLeod also witnessed the child having a seizure and reported this to his boss.

Another sales-rep visited the Blucks the next day and heard crying from upstairs, which Mr Bluck told her to ignore.

He told her: “It is probably the child having another fit.”

When the saleswoman raised concerns the boy could swallow his tongue, lorry driver Bluck replied: “I’ve checked before – he doesn’t swallow his tongue.”

The court heard she contacted social workers, but in the meantime the boy had another seizure that lead to him being taken to hospital on 11 March. Medics noted the child had multiple bruising and was “grossly underweight”.

Prosecutor Miss Fraser said: “He was reported by James Bluck to be clumsy and to fall a lot.” The child was transferred to Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital, where a CT scan revealed haemorrhages on both sides of his brain, which required surgery.

The court heard it was “considered unlikely” the injuries resulted from an earlier fall.

On 13 March, James Bluck contacted police to say his partner had told him she was responsible for the boy being hurt.

Bluck later told officers she had asked for help from the social work department, but had not received any.

She said she had pushed the boy twice at the beginning of February and that his head had hit the floor. The Blucks are expected to be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on 22 November.