Child attackers serve full jail sentences
was time for his first supervised visit with his mum and dad.
“His dad came bounding up, saying, ‘Thanks for looking after our boy. You’ll think us bad parents but it was just a terrible accident’. I couldn’t shake off the suspicion it was more than that.”
In May 2015, Paula and Mark told social services they wanted to adopt him. A year later, he was legally theirs. Paula went straight to the police to voice her concerns but was told there was “insufficient evidence” to prove any abuse by Tony’s parents. She said: “I knew detectives were looking into the case but I had no right to information until I was Tony’s legal parent. “As soon as the adoption came through I contacted them and heard it had been dropped. “I was devastated. I wrote a victim’s right to appeal letter to the CPS. Within weeks, a detective came to see me to explain why it hadn’t gone to court. I told them about my meeting with Tony’s real dad and what he’d said. He was shocked. He said there and then that he would re-look at the case.” Smith and Simpson were charged months later. They denied causing physical harm and cruelty to Tony. They told police they delayed taking Tony for medical help because they were waiting in for a plumber.
Paula faced the pair in Maidstone Crown Court in February.
She said: “I was terrified. But I’m a mum and you do anything for your child.”
Happy
After the verdict, the judge told the court: “Tony’s adoptive family are stars. They are absolute stars.”
Tony will be four in October and is learning to use prosthetic limbs, which he got just before Christmas last year.
Paula said: “He will never recover fully. Everything he does, he has to adapt to his own way.
“Now he has stubbies – to try and help him use prosthetics in the future.