She told the BBC: “I was still waiting for him to come home. The contact meant the world to me. I even asked them to extend it to about two hours. They didn’t. I didn’t trust them [the social workers]but I was willing to cooperate to get Leyland back.”
But when Covid hit, the contact center closed and she could only see her baby via video link.
Mrs Corkill believes her lack of face-to-face contact with her son due to Covid and the closure of the center was one of the factors used against her by the council.
In July 2020, the family court issued an adoption order for Leyland-James.
Mrs Corkill says she was devastated not to have been told that Cumbria County Council had already put her son up for adoption and found a family to place him with months earlier.
But in January 2021, the baby was taken to hospital by ambulance. Laura Castle told emergency services that he had fallen off a couch, injuring his head, and that he was unresponsive.
“It was bad not to tell me”
A social worker called Ms Corkill but did not tell her which hospital he was at.
“I was on my feet all night. I just wanted to try to find out if I could go to every hospital I could to find him. It was bad not to tell me.’
Cumbria County Council says only limited details have been shared with her because his prospective adopters were with him and the extent of his injuries were not known at the time. But the next day, when it became clear she wasn’t expected to live, Laura was called within the hour.
Ms Corkill says that by the time she got to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, Leyland-James was dead. The staff did not allow her to touch his body as it was evidence and part of the crime scene.
She says she knew instinctively that her child’s death was no accident.
“I said whoever held him killed him. The surgeon told me that “we had suspicions about it and an investigation began as soon as Leyland-James entered the hospital.”
Pathologists would later say in court that Leyland-James’ injuries were a classic indicator of “blunt head trauma” — a substitute term for “shaken baby syndrome” — and were of the severity seen in high-speed car crashes.
A spokesman for Cumbria County Council said there were concerns that Leiland-James’ needs could not be met and that it had to act.
It said Mrs Corkill was assessed as being unable to meet Leyland-James’ needs and during his lifetime her circumstances had not changed.
An independent review of the case is expected to be published on Thursday.
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