Five-week-old baby's "serious injuries could have been prevented"

Catastrophic injuries inflicted on a five-week-old girl by her parents could have been prevented if signs of earlier abuse, including fractured ribs, had been spotted, a report has said.

Baby Isabelle will be wheelchair-bound, have to be fed through a tube for the rest of her life, and may never regain her sight, after being abused by her parents Rocky Uzzell and Katherine Prigmore from Kettering.

A report from the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Board said Isabelle, referred to as Child N, was taken to hospital six times in a five-week period between her birth and March 20 in 2014, when her parents were arrested.

Uzzell and Prigmore called 999 on March 12, reporting that their daughter was unresponsive, had vacant eyes and was limp and floppy. Isabelle stayed in hospital for two days on a high dependency unit.

According to the report, X-rays were taken and she was discharged with antibiotics for a "presumed chest infection" but two rib fractures were not spotted.

The report concluded it was possible that Uzzell and Prigmore's difficulties in caring for their daughter "could have been predicted", but added there were suggestions that they were coping with the stress of a newborn and were "devoted" to her.

Both parents were jailed at Northampton Crown Court in December for causing or allowing a child to suffer serious harm. Uzzell received an eight-and-half year sentence, while Prigmore was handed a 28-month prison term.

In response, Kettering General Hospital's Director of Nursing and Quality, Leanne Hackshall said: