NEUROSCIENTIST: ‘IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A PARENT TO FORGET THEIR CHILD’

Neuroscientist and professor David Diamond, of the Department of Psychology at University of South Florida, spoke to Juan soon after the twins died, when the grieving dad contacted him to help him understand how it happened. Speaking to Closer, Professor Diamond says, “When Mr Rodriguez first phoned me, he was inconsolable. He thought he was the only person who had ever done this, he was deeply suffering.

But in the US, in that same week, two other children died, and in a three-week period, 15 children had died in similar circumstances.

“In each case where I’d spoken to the parent, they said they’d dropped the child off. But memory can be faulty and this can lead to catastrophic consequences.

“Because a parent arrives at their intended final destination, the brain can create a false memory that the child must be where they were intended to be dropped off. The parent can then spend the whole day at work – even look at pictures of the child – then return to their car fully expecting to pick them up but, instead, the child is there.

“People find it hard to accept a parent can forget their own child, but it is possible. To prevent it, you need something specific to remind you that your child is in the car, maybe leaving your phone in their car seat or one of their toys that you can keep in the front seat when you are driving as a reminder the child is in the car with you. I believe we need to have child detection systems in all cars, as a requirement. Just because there hasn’t been a case like this in the UK yet, doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”