Louise Mason is finally a mother again, leading a family life for the first time in more than five years.

She presents a calm — if brittle — front as she talks of her ordeal since she was falsely accused of harming her baby and having her children disappear into the care system one by one.

The long battle to clear her name and have her children returned to her has left this 38-year-old single mother utterly drained and emotionless. She pauses before answering questions, chooses her responses with caution, and, even as she insists that she is happy, can barely raise a smile.

Shadowing her happiness is the knowledge that, despite being cleared of all claims, she may never have her middle child — taken from her at four weeks — returned. He has bonded so well with his foster family that she may lose him permanently into enforced adoption.

Ms Mason’s agony began when her four-week-old baby was taken ill one Saturday afternoon. “She made a strange cry and was very pale, very cold,” she told The Times in the office of her solicitor, Carmel McGilloway.

Her GP instantly alerted Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry. “It was touch and go that night, the baby was bleeding internally and had to be given a transfusion. A lady in the hospital gave me a picture of St Teresa and said, ‘She never fails you’.” Ms Mason, a devout Roman Catholic, began praying.

Her baby was transferred to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, 60 miles (97 km) away, with a preliminary diagnosis of neuroblastoma, an abdominal tumour most commonly found in infants.

But in Belfast, a different diagnosis was made. “A doctor told me that the police and social services had been called.” It was suspected that her child was the victim of a non-accidental injury — the acronym NAI would pursue her for years.

Mother and baby returned to hospital in Londonderry, where the child made steady progress. Meanwhile, her eldest, 20-month-old, child had been signed into voluntary care. After six weeks’ medical care Ms Mason was allowed to go home but her baby followed the sibling to a foster family.

Six months later her solicitor advised her to withdraw her consent to fostering, forcing the matter into court. Nevertheless, it took another seven months before Ms Mason was finally interviewed under caution by the police — more than a year after her child fell ill. And another year passed before she was tried on two charges of grievous bodily harm. Throughout, Ms Mason’s access to her children was tightly curtailed and supervised. At worst she was allowed only an hour and a half with them once a month in the presence of a social worker.

At her trial it was suggested that her baby had been kicked or punched with such force that the damage was equivalent to having been dropped from a first-floor window. She was facing a custodial sentence, yet after telling the court that she was prepared to take a lie detector test, the jury delivered unanimous “not guilty” verdicts.

The ordeal was not over. Within a fortnight she was notified that Foyle Health and Social Services Trust was pressing on with plans to have her children permanently removed from her. In December 2004 adoption papers were served.

“The judge was faced with a huge amount of medical evidence, all of which pointed to NAI,” her solicitor said. “At least five doctors were all singing from the same hymn sheet.” So, cleared of committing the alleged crime that had torn her family apart, there seemed no way back. “This was a hopeless case,” Ms McGilloway said. “Then out of the blue I was called by a consultant radiologist at Altnagelvin Hospital.” “Doctor D”, as he was called in court, revealed that he remembered giving the initial diagnosis of neuroblastoma — which had been overruled — in Belfast.

Ms Mason returned to court to appeal against the care order, which was quashed. The issue was sent back to the family court.

In June 2006 Ms Mason faced her third and final trial in the battle to recover her two children, who by then had a third sibling five months earlier. Ms Mason spent ten days in hospital with her newborn baby before it was also removed from her and placed with foster parents.

Foyle Trust told the family court that it was no longer pursuing the NAI aspect of the case. It was agreed that the family’s reunification should start at the children’s pace.

Louise Mason got her youngest child back in July 2006. The eldest of the three returned home in time for Christmas. And the third, the child who was rushed to hospital at just four weeks old? “There’s no sign of the child coming back,” Ms Mason said. “The child tried an overnight stay and was so distressed, it was awful.”

Her solicitor said: “A very grave miscarriage of justice may have occurred. We must not forget she could have lost all of her children.”

Ms Mason said: You simply do not think that one moment you can be a normal mother bringing up your children and the next moment your whole life has been turned upside down.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be