A MOTHER who failed to protect her baby from brutal assaults by her partner has failed to overturn a ruling that her child must be adopted.

The Blackburn woman, who is in her 20s, but cannot be identified for legal reasons, challenged a care order in favour of Lancashire County Council made by a judge in April this year, which ordered that her daughter should be put up for adoption.

The judge made that order at Blackburn County Court following earlier findings that the woman’s partner had inflicted “non-accidental injuries” on their child.

Although the mother has never herself caused any harm to the girl, now aged two, the judge found she had “failed to protect” the baby.

Despite her having temporary supervised contact with her daughter, the judge rejected her as a “safe future carer”, saying that “she had not intervened to protect the child during her cohabitation with the dangerous father.”

The mother’s case reached London’s Appeal Court on Wednesday as she challenged the April 2008 care order.

Her barrister, Peter Buckley, urged Lord Justice Thorpe to direct a full appeal hearing, arguing that the county court judge had passed over the mother’s credentials as a caring individual with the potential to be a good parent.

“She displays all the qualities one would hope for in a mother,” Mr Buckley told the judge.

The barrister said the county court judge had noted that she “related” well with her child, but had also found that she failed to learn properly from her mistakes.

However, Lord Justice Thorpe said he could find no error in the county court judge’s ruling.