A judge has ruled that four children must be immunised after their Muslim mother first refused to consent as she believed the injections contained pork.

The four youngsters – two boys aged six and seven months and two girls aged four and two – had a variety of outstanding immunisations, Judge Carol Atkinson explained.

She made the ruling after social services staff from Newham Council asked for decisions to be made on a number of welfare issues, including where the children should live.

The family court was told how the children’s parents had separated, with the youngsters remaining with their mother.

But they had been taken into police protection after concerns were raised about their care, according to Judge Atkinson who said the council took action after neighbours complained of a woman shouting abuse at children and telling of persistent crying.

The judge ruled that the children should live with their Somalian-born father, who was based in London.

He would have support from social workers, she said, and the children would stay in contact with their British mother.

“These children have a variety of outstanding immunisations,” said Judge Atkinson in a ruling.

“The mother has refused her consent on a number of different bases; that the vaccines contain pork gelatine is the most recent objection.”

She added: “It transpires that the ones proposed do not.

“Having been shown that her fears are unwarranted, she has agreed that the children can have the necessary vaccines.

“I am nevertheless asked to make an order on the basis that she is likely to change her position and withdraw her consent, as has been the pattern in these proceedings and indeed in relation to this very issue.

“I bear in mind that I should make no order unless an order is necessary. I note the mother’s willingness to consent but I have seen her agree to a whole host of things in these proceedings only to change her position later.

“Accordingly I intend to make an order.”

Judge Atkinson added that the children’s mother had “a paranoid view of the world” and that she was emotionally volatile and had displayed aggressive behaviour.

She concluded that the children had suffered and would be exposed to more suffering if they stayed with her.