A BADSEY couple had their family life torn apart when they were falsely accused of abusing their baby son.

The family revealed their story following recent high profile court cases where mothers have been wrongly jailed for abuse solely on experts' diagnosis, now being brought into question.

Natasha and Tony Putnam endured two months of investigations and considered taking a £1,100 lie detector test after 14-month-old Harry had a fall at their home and they were accused of physical abuse.

Seven days after the fall in October, a head scan showed two bleeds, one which doctors said happened in the previous four to six weeks and could not be explained.

Social services and the child protection police immediately put Harry on an at-risk register and in the care of his grandmother in Redditch, where Mr and Mrs Putnam were not allowed to be on their own with their son.

Each member of the family was interviewed and assessed weekly, crime scene officers videoed their house and the couple's other son, three-year-old Oliver, was examined but nothing found.

Two months later doctors in Birmingham discovered Harry had only one injury from the fall and a blood clotting disorder which caused the head bleed - and could cause brain damage in later life.

Mrs Putnam said: "It was frightening - all we wanted to do was find out what was wrong with Harry. All you are trying to do is get answers from people and nobody would tell us. It was a pure waiting game. We had tough times as a family. If you have got a weak marriage, you would not survive it.

"This is the kind of thing you think will always happen to someone else. If Harry had died, we would never have known what was wrong with him, because they need fresh blood samples. I would be banged up and Oliver would be here on his own with Tony."

Mrs Putnam, who believed there should have been thorough tests before social services were called, said they had received no apology.

Janet-Marie Clark, spokeswoman for Worcestershire Royal Hospital, said: "If the family contact the hospital, we'll look into their concerns. Although we have sympathy with the family, our main concern is to look after the interests of the child first. There are national clinical guidelines for the care of children in hospital which the trust adheres to and which we followed on this occasion."

Carole Pugh, of Worcestershire County Council, said social services had a legal obligation to act immediately but they would work with the extended family to minimise the stress of the investigation.

"We know only too well how distressing this can be, but our main concern has got to be for the welfare and safety of the child above everything else," she said.

Mrs Putnam said she received tremendous support from The Five Percenters group, which has been set up to help parents wrongly accused of abuse.

They can be contacted on 020 7639 0842.