The Child Had Eaten At The Troubled Babylon Inn, Croydon, Before Falling Ill

A mother, whose child was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with salmonella, has instructed specialist Public Health lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate the cause of her daughter’s ongoing illness.

Hayley Barnes, 26, took her then two-year-old child to dinner at the Babylon Inn, Croydon in February 2015. The restaurant, which was an all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurant, served a mixture of cuisines, including Indian, Chinese, Middle-Eastern and Italian.

Two days after the meal, Hayley’s daughter Scarlett, began to suffer from gastric illness symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhoea and a fever.

Scarlett was admitted to A&E at Croydon University Hospital, where tests confirmed the two-year old was suffering from salmonella, which is usually contracted by eating contaminated food. Scarlett then suffered a prolapsed bowel which is causing her ongoing medical issues and the now four-year-old still has to receive treatment from specialists.

The experience was devastating for Hayley and was very stressful, especially as she also at the same time suffered a miscarriage.

Hayley, from South Norwood in London, said: “I felt uneasy when we were in the restaurant as it felt and seemed unclean. We could see oily grease stains across the buffet area and we couldn’t see a food hygiene rating on display.

“The aftermath of eating there has just been absolutely horrific. It is so upsetting to see Scarlett in so much discomfort and pain.

Later in the year, after Hayley and Scarlett had dined at the Babylon Inn, the restaurant was the centre of a food hygiene investigation after inspectors found it was infested with rodents.

Amongst the appalling conditions, inspectors found that there were rodent droppings in the kitchen and chewed packaging, evidence of cockroaches in the storage room, poor food-handling practices by staff, structural disrepair throughout, health and safety hazards including electrical safety issues, and an incomplete food and safety management system.

The restaurant, which was then owned by Mardan Mahood and his wife Hend Hamud, was visited a total of five times by inspectors in its first four years of trading. Due to the findings of the inspectors, the owners were taken to court in 2015 and charged with 19 food and safety offences to which they both pleaded guilty.

Serena Patel, the specialist public health expert at Irwin Mitchell representing Hayley and Scarlett, said: “The appalling conditions that were present in the Babylon Inn when it was serving food to members of the public are completely unacceptable.

“Whilst it is positive that actions have been taken to remove the owners, it is concerning that a young girl has spent half her life fighting an illness caused by for a complete disregard for the safety of others shown by the owners of the Babylon Inn.

“We have worked with thousands of people who have fallen ill as a result of outbreaks of food poisoning, both in the UK and abroad, seeing first-hand the impact which gastric illness can have on the victims’ day-to day lives and their long-term health, but the tragic consequences in this case are some of the most heart-breaking.”