Muslim convert refused to give her children ‘pork’ vaccine

A “paranoid”, “abusive” and “emotionally volatile” Welsh woman, who converted to Islam as a teenager, refused to allow her children to be immunised because she was convinced the vaccines contained traces of pork, a court has heard.

The woman, who cannot be named, also rejected any medical assistance when she gave birth in secret to her fourth child – allegedly using her other children, aged between two and six, effectively as midwives.

“[The] mother had accessed no antenatal services and had given birth at home alone whilst the older three children were in the living room watching television,” Judge Carole Atkinson explained, in a family court judgment.

“However there are instances of [the six-year-old son and four-year-old daughter] reporting to foster carers that they assisted with the birth.”

Judge Atkinson ruled the children should be raised by their father – who was born in Somalia but grew up in Britain – with the support of social services. The mother refused to be assessed by a court-appointed psychiatrist, because she was not a Muslim, but the judge ruled she was unable to care for the children.

“The mother’s paranoid view of the world and her emotional volatility is such that if the children were returned to her care now I consider it highly likely that they would continue to be exposed to the same behaviour as led to the issue of the proceedings putting them at clear risk of further emotional harm and probably physical harm,” she said. Crucially, the judge issued a specific ordered that the children should be given vaccinations, which they had been denied on supposed religious grounds.