Missing mum hands herself in at JPH

A MOTHER who went missing with her new-born baby for almost two weeks has had the child removed from her care after it emerged that her partner has a conviction for child neglect.

Emily Burgess, of Victoria Road, Great Yarmouth, turned up at the James Paget Hospital (JPH) with her baby son Marley, on Wednesday, after seeing an appeal on TV news.

The 30-year-old was immediately put under police guard and the 12-day old baby was taken away from her.

Miss Burgess gave birth to the baby on her own, and yesterday she described the ordeal as “terrifying.”

She went on to explain how she felt she had no choice but to go on the run on August 4.

“Social services told me that they wouldn't take my baby away. But, a week before I was due they told me that the baby would be removed at birth.”

She also hit out at social services for taking her baby away from her just minutes after she'd finished breast feeding him.

An emotional Miss Burgess said: “They just took him from my arms. I'd only just finished breast-feeding him and they just took him. It was coldly done.”

However, Norfolk Social Services' deputy director of children's services Meera Spillett said that a baby's safety was always their top priority.

“We are delighted that mother and baby were both found safe and well. Our priority and indeed our responsibility is to make sure that the baby in particular remains safe and well.”

But it emerged that Miss Burgess' partner, Ray Junior, who was arrested earlier in the week in connection with her disappearance, has a history of serious child abuse.

The 34-year-old, who was released from custody on Wednesday, was sent to prison in 1997 for five-years for ill-treating a four-year-old boy and beating up his mother.

Tried at Northampton Crown Court under his previous name of Keith Clifford, a jury was told how he hit the child repeatedly with a belt, forced him to stand in the corner for hours on end, made him remain under a shower all night and deprived him of food.

Recorder Nicholas Jarman QC described his conduct during a week-long ordeal as “appalling”.

Miss Burgess' disappearance sparked a frantic police search after she vanished in a heavily pregnant state. Checks were made with hospitals and midwives, but police found nothing to suggest she or the baby had received any medical attention.

Mother-of-five Miss Burgess, who also uses the names Jennifer Uttine, Denise Bold and Amanda Graham, said she went to stay with a friend but was on her own for the birth and “had to do everything myself which was terrifying”.

She went to the hospital after seeing a police appeal for her to come forward on a television news report.

She also hoped it would lead to the release of her partner from custody at Yarmouth police station.

Mr Junior, now back at his home nearby in Yarmouth, said they had both been through a nightmare.

He said: “I had done nothing wrong but the police thought I had killed her to start with.”