Baby with rare medical condition reunited with parents after false abuse accusations

A couple who were accused of shaking their baby have been reunited with their child after it emerged she has a rare medical condition which causes "easy bruising".

Craig Stillwell and Carla Andrews, both 23, spent nine months under investigation after their daughter Effie suffered a bleed on the brain.

Miss Andrews has spoken out, saying: "I just wanted it out in the open that we were found innocent and I don't really want other parents that may have it to go through the same thing."

Effie collapsed when about five-months-old at home in Buckinghamshire in August 2016 and was taken to hospital.

Her father Craig Stillwell was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm as authorities believed Effie had been shaken and she was taken into care.

Craig and Carla were both questioned over how her injuries came about and they were only allowed to see Effie a couple of times a week under close supervision.

Experts later discovered Effie has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, causing her arteries to rupture.

It is a condition characterised by "thin and translucent skin, easy bruising, vascular and arterial rupture".

The judge said at a family court hearing that Effie was the first child diagnosed with EDS IV to be subject of a family court "forensic inquiry".

Detail of the case has emerged in a ruling by Judge Venables, who named Effie and her parents after they asked her to deliver an "open judgement" to encourage discussion of EDS IV.

The council withdrew an application to take Effie into care and following a hearing into the case, Carla and Craig asked for the court judgement to be made public, so more people would be aware of the syndrome.

The family have now been reunited with Effieand the couple want to raise awareness of the condition.