A mother and father sewed tracking devices into their children’s toys so they could monitor where they were living in foster care and “where they could be snatched”, a judge has found.
The children, all younger than school age, are in foster care and the subject of care proceedings, a court in Liverpool heard.
In May the carers found a small tracking device, made by the same company as their mother’s mobile phone, stitched into a bag which had been given to one of the children by their parents.
Judge Malcolm Sharpe said two other trackers were found in two soft toys previously given to the children
In a judgment published on Friday he said at the time the devices were discovered, the couple, who “give the impression of being transient in their lifestyles”, had three children together, with the woman pregnant with their fourth.
Judge Sharpe said the parents were contacted and denied any knowledge of the devices.
The parents then made counter-accusations against the local authority concerned in proceedings about whether they had done this deliberately to discredit them.
In later statements to the court, the mother accepted sole responsibility for the idea of purchasing trackers and for the execution of the plan, but the judge did not accept that the father would not have known.
The mother said she had planted the trackers because she was concerned that the children had attended meetings with her “on a few occasions” with bruising.
But Judge Sharpe said she was unable to say “why she had thought that being able to locate the children and track them would have assisted with regard to any bruising sustained”.
In his written judgment, he continued: “I do not believe what the parents tell me and I reject their evidence.
“In fact, I am inclined to the view that the father was probably the driver behind what has turned out to be a disastrous diversion from the progress the case had been making.”
He also said the devices were part of a plan by the parents to know where the children were “either in terms of where they were living, or from where they could be snatched. And probably both.”
Judge Sharpe also found that the parents had made a “concerted effort to conceal the truth” by not handing over their phones so that they could be examined in relation to the tracking devices.
He said the parents needed to “take stock” and reflect on his findings and “start to work out how they can address the damage they have caused” to their wider case surrounding care of the children.
