Jo Early, 54, appeared on ITV's This Morning with her 18-year-old daughter Abi, Charlie's twin sister, to discuss a campaign calling for parents who seriously harm their children to be banned from having access to them and their siblings. The emotional interview aired on August 6.
Charlie's father, Gavin Gibbs, was sentenced to prison for what the judge described as "an appalling act of violence" against his son. Gibbs broke Charlie's arm and was convicted of grievous bodily harm, receiving a three-year sentence, later reduced to two years on appeal. He was released after 11 months and was still able to send Abi letters, cards, and receive updates on her education.
Charlie's death and the trial
The court heard that 17 days after his father broke his arm, Charlie died in hospital from brain damage at just three months old. Gibbs was found not guilty of murder following an Old Bailey trial. Defence experts suggested the brain injury could have been caused by an underlying medical condition.
Jo asked Gibbs to give up his parental responsibility, which gave him legal rights over Abi, but he would only do so on condition she allowed him access to her. Currently, parental responsibility is only removed when a person is convicted of killing their partner under "Jade's Law," named after Jade Ward, 27, who was murdered in her home in Shotton, Flintshire, by Russell Marsh in 2021.
Campaign for automatic removal of parental rights
Jo is campaigning for those rights to be removed automatically in cases where parents cause serious harm to their children. She has lobbied Baroness Alison Levitt KC and Victims' Rights Commissioner Claire Waxman.
Jo became emotional as she said she thought she had built a 'normal and happy' life with her husband, Gavin, after meeting while working for the ambulance service. Looking back now, she says it is difficult to believe that her husband was capable of hurting their son. She said: "There's no way, I was thinking a million years ago, that the man I married was capable of hurting my own child."
Recalling the horrifying moment
Jo recalled the horrifying moment her son was rushed into hospital, telling This Morning hosts Josie Gibson and Paddy McGuinness that it felt "something out of a horror movie".
Visibly moved, she explained: "I was already in hospital with Abby, because Abby had bronchitis, which was common for babies at that time of year. I wanted Charlie with me, so I asked the hospital staff if I could have Charlie with me in the hospital, and they said no because Abby might be contagious."
She continued: "So he (Charlie) had to stay home with his dad and I just remember sleeping next to Abby's cot in the hospital one night, I was just about to go to sleep but the nurse said, 'there's a call for you' so I went to the nurses' station and I picked up the phone, it was his crewmate and they said 'we've got Charlie in the ambulance, We're bringing him in. He stopped breathing, but we're bringing him in.'"
Fighting back tears, she went on: "And at that point, the room turned upside down. I was like I've got to get downstairs. I tried to look for a lift, and, you know, when you're so traumatized, you can't even press a button for the lift, so someone had to help me. I got downstairs, and I saw Charlie, Charlie lying there, and the doctors were working on him, and my legs just collapsed, and I was put into a wheelchair. I was so traumatised by what I'd seen."
Jo added: "It was something out of a terrible horror movie. He was at Kings on life support, and then they said that he wasn't going to survive, and he didn't make it, so he turned off his life support 2 days later."
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.
