The highly disturbing case heard detailed a backdrop of drug misuse, domestic violence and criminality
08:26, 06 Aug 2025Updated 08:36, 06 Aug 2025
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A court has heard that a girl, 6, contracted gonorrhoea after “sexual contact” with a member of her family. The disturbing case detailed a backdrop of parenteral drug misuse, domestic violence and criminality.
The harrowing details emerged during a hearing at Liverpool Civil and Family Court in July. Initiated by an unnamed local authority, it alleged the child contracted the STI due to abuse by either her mother or uncle.
By the time of the court proceedings, the girl had turned eight, and it was revealed that she and her younger brother, who was five when the incident occurred and is now seven, were exposed to their father’s domestic violence towards their mother.
In 2023, the mother, battling mental health issues and addiction to substances such as crack cocaine and heroin, as well as alcohol misuse, entrusted the children to their maternal grandmother, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The father’s criminal record includes convictions for battery, criminal damage, drug offences, and weapon possession.
The family court, which operates under strict reporting restrictions to prevent the identification of any parties involved in the proceedings, heard the girl was diagnosed in June 2023 with gonorrhoea. The girl’s grandmother and her partner were not infected and were ruled out as liable.
The girl’s father was also excluded from responsibility because at the time he was serving a custodial sentence. The local authority alleged the mum and uncle were infected at the time and both were potential perpetrators.
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Both the girl’s mum, who did not attend the hearing, and uncle denied infecting her by sexual means, raised doubt about the testing process and said there was no evidence of abuse by either of them.
A judge sitting at the same court in 2024 previously acquitted the two of sexual abuse, but the Court of Appeal ruled there had been errors in the process and remitted a rehearing before a high court judge.
The children lived at their grandmother’s house, with their grandmother’s partner and uncle also living at the address.
Her mum would visit the address occasionally and sleep on the children’s bedroom floor. The fresh proceedings heard from the mum during her written evidence that she had unprotected sex with two men in June 2023, while the uncle admitted to three partners in the previous month.
Oral evidence from the proceedings heard the uncle began to notice symptoms “on or about May 23 2023”, with him testing positive for gonorrhoea and chlamydia two days later.
He told the proceedings that after a week he continued to have unprotected sex with partners. In early June the girl’s eye was swollen, red and itchy and she was taken to a clinic.
Tests confirmed her right eye had tested positive for the infection, a vulval swab was “weakly positive” and the urine test “equivocal” for gonorrhoea. The mum later tested positive for gonorrhoea after swabs were taken on June 14 of the same year.
The local authority began care proceedings and orders were made on the basis the children remained in the care of their grandmother, on the condition no one else other than her partner lived at the property.
The grandmother and children moved house at the time because rumours of sexual abuse became known in the local community and it was not safe for them to remain.
The children’s mother continued to live a chaotic lifestyle characterised by drug and alcohol misuse. The uncle’s drug use of “crack, ket, cocaine, magic” also continued and he was later charged with rape in March 2024.
Two experts instructed for the hearing were in agreement that fomite transmission, where somebody comes into contact with a disease through contamination, was a possibility, but highly unlikely. They instead found sexual contact was the most probable cause of the girl’s infection.
High court judge Mr Justice Peel, presiding, told the hearing that he was satisfied that the girl’s contraction of the infection “was as a result of direct sexual contact” and not from fomite transfer.
He added “the strong likelihood is…this little girl was subjected to inappropriate sexual contact by the mother and or uncle at some point in May 2023”.
The judge said: “Both the mother and the uncle had the opportunity to perpetrate sexual contact during May 2023 which is the likely period for (the girl) being infected. The uncle lived at the house a few days each week and spent time with the children, even if there was always another adult in the building.
“The mother went to the house on occasions and slept at least one night in the children’s room. Both tested positive for gonorrhoea and, in my judgment, there is a realistic possibility that each of them was infected during May 2023 and, in terms of timeline, could have infected (the girl). Both had the opportunity to infect her in the sense that they spent time in the same house as the children.
“Both led somewhat chaotic and boundaryless lives. Both were, I am satisfied, on occasions incapacitated while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”
The judge continued: “There is no evidence of a conspiracy, or a joint enterprise. However, sexual contact did take place with one or the other.
“I cannot say precisely when the sexual contact was perpetrated. I am satisfied that one of them transmitted gonorrhoea to (the girl), but I am unable to conclude which one.”
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He added it would be difficult to make a specific finding as to which of them carried out the abuse in the absence of oral evidence from the mum.
Justice Peel said: “I am satisfied that both fall within the pool of realistically possible perpetrators. Unsatisfactory though it is, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot decide on the balance of probabilities which of them is the perpetrator.”
The judge concluded that the threshold findings sought by the local authority had been established, with both the mother and uncle falling within the pool of possible perpetrators.