Boy, 2, taken from parents over smoke

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy was taken from his parents’ care after a health visitor highlighted concerns about the level of cigarette smoke at his home.

Health visitor Julie Allen told a family court judge she had not come across such a “smoky house” in her 10-year career.

She described the boy and his father being surrounded by a “visible cloud of smoke” – and said she had difficulty breathing.

Judge Louise Pemberton, who was also told of a number of other concerns about the way the youngster was b ei ng cared f or, concluded that he should be placed for adoption.

Detail of the case has emerged in a written ruling by the judge following a family court hearing in Hull.

The judge said the family could not be identified. She did not identify the local authority which had asked for the little boy to be placed for adoption, but she named individual health and social ser vices staff who had worked with the family. Judge Pemberton said the boy had breathing problems and needed an inhaler, and she said Ms Allen had “graphically highlighted” concerns about smoke.

“On entering the living room Ms Allen described being able to see a visible cloud of smoke surrounding the father and (the boy),” said the judge.

“(The boy) was asleep on the sofa and had been unwell for some time by this point.

“Ms Allen described the room as ‘so smoke entrenched that I had difficulty breathing’. She immediately expressed concern to the parents as to the impact of such smoke on (the boy), who had already been prescribed an inhaler within the previous month to help his breathing.”

Judge Pemberton said the boy’s mother had disputed many of the concerns raised about conditions at home and about “levels of smoke” but she found much of the woman’s evidence “hard to accept”.