Last summer I was enjoying a drink with a friend in his apartment overlooking the Thames and Canary Wharf. His adorable little three year old daughter was entertaining us with songs and dancing and other antics. At one point she sat on his knee and asked what he was drinking. After he told he it was beer she asked if she could taste it, which is what you would expect a curious child to ask. He said yes, but before he could raise the glass to the child’s lips his wife exploded in anger and shouted “No! What are you doing? Do you want them to take her!?”
It transpired that “them” were local social workers who had taken an interest in the child, lets call her M, after they had discovered some bruising on her back (she had fallen). They had subjected her mother to what she describes as fierce interrogation. Why is she so small, is she being fed properly? Where did these bruises come from etc.
Now two minutes with this family would convince anyone that M is both adored and adoring. One might even say as an only child she is bit pampered. M is healthy, her parent are wealthy working professionals and she lacks for nothing. Despite this he mother lives in fear that the social workers will get the wrong idea. Someone swearing in front of the chid caused near panic because she might repeat the word in front of the social worker, same with the beer incident, “what would happen if they found out we gave her beer!”.
It all seemed a bit paranoid to me, so I gently suggested as much. “They are taking children all the time”, M’s mother told me, ” in secret courts. Parents are genuinely scared of messing with these people”.
I knew that the family courts were absurdly cruel to fathers and that Father For Justice were making good progress in righting the injustices there. But secret draconian courts confiscating children. I thought she had lost her mind.
I was wrong.
In December 2006, Camilla Cavendish, a journalist from the Times newspaper, learned of a dreadful case that just gone through the family courts, a routine case of gross injustice that had come to typify the family courts.
The nub of the case is this. A woman, let us call her Janie, gave birth to her first and only child a year ago. That baby was taken away from her and subsequently put up for adoption. Not because of her own failure to care for the baby — her own love and care never seem to have been in question. No. She has lost her baby because of a suspicion that her husband John may have injured another child in his previous marriage almost ten years ago.
The suspicion was no more than that. John was never charged with anything, let alone convicted. Social workers were never sufficiently worried to take that first child into care. Since his divorce John has shared custody of that child perfectly amicably with his ex-wife. Yet the same local authority which left the first child with him has forbidden him to see this new baby. And his new wife, despite having nothing to do with the first case, may never see her baby again. [Family courts are the B-side of the law, The Times, December 21st 2006]
Cavendish was so outraged by this case started investigating the Family Court and the UK’s care system. What she discovered was so shocking that The Times newspaper launched a campaign for justice in the Family Courts.
As readers have found out more about the family Courts and the care system outrage has grown and the campaign had gathered strength. The issue is now finally getting serious political attention.
The Times published three must read articles and a follow-up 10 point plan to restore justice.
- Family justice: the secret state that steals our children – Every year thousands of children are taken from their parents, largely on the say-so of ‘experts’. It is a secret and sometimes unjust process and the system must change
- Family courts: the hidden untouchables – In the second of the special articles, they explain how family courts operate in secrecy
- Family justice: your word against theirs – In the third of their special articles, they look at the pernicious types of allegation that are almost impossible for parents to disprove
- Family justice: what we can do to protect our children – A ten-point plan to make our courts system fairer
When one reads the 10 point plan, one has to marvel that one has to be campaign for these rights and provisions in a court that has the power to take away people’s children, for many a fate worse than death.
- Open family courts to the press in all but exceptional circumstances (as recommended by the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee).
- Let any parent or carer accused of abuse call any witnesses they need in their defence. At the moment, they are routinely refused permission to do so.
- Give automatic permission for parents who are refused legal aid to get a lay adviser to help them present their case. This is routinely refused.
- Remove the restrictions that prevent families from talking about their case (as recommended by the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee).
- Review the definition of “emotional abuse” across local authorities, to make sure that it cannot become a catch-all for overzealous officials.
- Provide an automatic right for parents to receive copies of case conference notes and all evidence used against them in court, just as they would in a criminal trial.
- Create an independent body to oversee the actions of social services, with proper sanctions. If that body is to be the General Social Care Council, make it easier for parents to go directly to that body rather than having to face delays from the local authority.
- Let children in care waive their right to privacy if they wish to speak out. For gagging children is surely not consistent with promoting their welfare.
- Restructure CAFCASS, the Family Court Advisory Service, from being an organisation that reports on the parents to the courts to one that actively promotes the parenting needs of children. The primary focus should cease to be assisting the court process. It should be diverting parents away from contested hearings into the making of parenting plans.
- Review the recent legal aid cut-backs that are deterring lawyers from taking on these complex family cases. It is quite wrong that desperate parents are unable to find a lawyer to help them in their time of need.
[From Family justice: what we can do to protect our children | Camilla Cavendish - Times Online]
I hope that Ms Cavendish wins an award for this great and just campaign. If you live in the UK, you really should visit the campaign website and write you your MP.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
My sister recently had 5 healthy boys taken from her by the family court system, with no evidence, and no case to support this break up of her family.
She is a single parent with a boyfriend who is the biological father to the two youngest children, but a dad to all 5. A report from an anonymous person complained that her boyfriend shouted too much to the social services. They banned him from the house and ever seeing his children again. They then in a raid style invaded my sister’s property searching for him on a regular basis. As the couple are in love and didn’t understand why this had happened, eventually they found him in the house and the children were taken away.
Here are the facts:
– Neither of the parent figures have been accused or convicted of a crime against the children
- The children since being in care have suffered from prolonged illness and lice and the oldest child wanders the streets. He is only 11.
- In the care of the mother and her boyfriend the children were all healthy and happy.
- The police and local school have stated this case is unjustified
- The father of the 2 middle children has been granted free access to them, when 4 years ago he kidnapped the children and threatened to kill them and himself. The social services don’t seem to mind this.
- The council house of the mother has been called unsuitable for the children. It was provided by the council, why is the mother blamed for this?
- The maternal grandmother who worked for the North Yorkshire Police and has been commended for her work with them and never committed any kind of crime has been denied free access to her grandchildren. Due to finding her grandson wandering a busy road and taking him home for some food before returning him to the social services. He’d been on the streets for over 8 hours and needed food.
- The 11 year old was alone on a bus and saw his grandmother walking by on her way home from work. He was been so desperate to see her he jumped off a moving bus to try and see his grandmother. Fortunately the bus driver wasn’t driving fast and he only got a few scratches. The maternal grandmother has been told she cannot see him unsupervised because of this. Why was he unsupervised on a bus in the first place?
- The family court will not allow defence solicitors in it, so only one side of the case is ever heard.
- There has been no arrest, prosecution or more importantly evidence against the mother, she has been judged without even a trial.
- An anonymous person also reported to income support that my sister was working, it was easy to prove she wasn’t as she was in court the days they lied about her. But why hasn’t this anonymous person been taken into account in this case? Someone is clearly slandering my sister with every government body.
- The social services, care workers, solicitors and judges all make a profit from this kind of child theft.
- They target low income families as they cannot defend themselves.
I’m disgusted with the social services and the family court legal system, it appears to ignore every legal requirement for a court case and side only with itself, either to fill a government quota or to make a profit. Innocent children are being ripped from their homes and put in unsafe environments and the only purpose of these cases seem to be to traumatise the mothers by ripping their children away unfairly.
I will never have children in the UK and be subject them to these baby snatchers, and hope every institution that claims to protect children will help to put a stop to this kind of injustice.
I work for a human rights charity and am appalled at the lack of human rights in these cases. The UK family courts are nothing but baby snatchers under a government heading. The social services have ripped apart a poor but happy family, with no evidence, no defence for the parents, no reason other than to fill a government quota. When someone steals your children they take away your whole life with them. The legal jargon and new policies all add up to destroyed families, not the protection of children. I intend to contact the EU for an investigation into this case and campaign against this kind of injustice. I hope I’m not the only one.
Oh Claire, I am desperately sorry to hear this story.
Thank you very much for sharing this with us.
If I can help in any way, please contact me privately via the contact form. I am reasonably well connected in the UK, especially in legal circles, and there may be something I can do.
Even councillors who are corporate parents are not deemed good enough as grandparents unless assessed, having already previously cared for their grandchildren.So much for party support.Local Authority SS will do anything to prevent them getting to County level and onto ‘childrens trust’in order to help support families and enforce ‘family group conferences policy’ to stop the injustices that are happening where families are not even contacted.
My Brothers family in UK have themselves become victims of the SS. His 6 children were taken this Wednesday January 09 by the child snatchers. He is guilty in the eyes of the child snatchers of a chaotic lifestyle. It was established in the court that the family are very loving, extremely close to their parents and each other. The Judge was against my brother and his wife from the start. The SS lied throughout the hearing. The court refused to acknowlegde anything that my family had to say. The 3 youngest were gone by the time my brother got out of court. Snatched by an SS worker in a cab the two boys were held at school, the police were present. By the time he got home his eldest daughter was waiting for them, 5 minutes later the police and SS came with sirens blazin. She was absolutely devastated sobbing as she was escorted out of the arms of her parents. His wife have gone to stay with family she is in no fit state to be in her empty home anymore. I spoke with him last night, I cant find the words to even begin to explain his loss, his frustration, his heartbreak. He told me he had called his daughters friends just incase she had called anyone. As we all know SS watch these kids 24/7 when first stolen. THey are not allowed to make any calls to anyone. I applied for custody of the kids I heard nothing from the Courts at all. I need help. I will do everything and anything to expose this inhumane, cruel, barbaric, outrageous lack of justice taking place in the UK
Dear Kim,
Thanks for commenting. This, like so many of these terrible injustices, is absolutely heartbreaking.
I hope you and your family can beat the system. Make sure you contact The Times with your story.
Please also keep me updated with what happens.
JD
The “SS” can be beaten if you fight like a tiger every step of the way !
Several mothers who got their kids back appear on my site http://www.forced-adoption com as do my “golden rules” for dealing with the “ss” and explanations as to how you can recover your children representing yourself in court and explaining the law to help you in nearly every case.
I own and run a language school in Monaco .I am not a qualified lawyer but I DO have an Oxford University law degree .I help HUNDREDS of parents with advice free of charge ,never ask for any expenses, andif parents ring me on 0033626875684 I WILL on REQUEST RING BACK AT MY EXPENSE TO SAVE THEM THE COST OF THE CALL; I never give to charity but do help parents fight the “ss” because their behaviour is often so cruel and disgusting especially when they remove babies at birth for forced adoption because they suspect a risk of emotional abuse in the future or because the father of a child was once suspected but usually never charged with violence many years ago! Is there a conspiracy? No not a bit of it ! The whole collection of social workers, special schools, lawyers,judges, fosterers(sometimes),experts(psychologists,psychiatrists,medical quacks and of course adoption agencies all earn a good living out of baby snatching and operate rather like a fanatical religious cult where any parent who questions their motives is labelled as paranoid or suffering from a personality disorder!
If the “ss” menace you when you are pregnant go to Ireland or Sweden before the birth but if your kids are taken into care fight in court using the info on my site ;
Good luck !
IAN
I am sitting here reading this page in tears. my children and I have been suffering unbelievably for over ten years due to the involvement of the family courts and cafcass personnel. I can only sympathise fully with these people. It is intolerable and lives are changed forever. When an attack is made on you, in our case it was my ex husband a barrister who knew all the loop holes. It has forced my family to spend vast sums of money on legal fees. The judge was useless and it seemed all were colluding against myself and my children all innocent. The reason ? becaause my husband had begun an affair with his very wealthy female pupil and wanted a new life. Somehow he wanted to take the children from me and destroy me (presumably for being in the way) he lied cheated and used every means he could. It has honestly completely ruined our lives . I even had to pull out of my business which was as an holistic therapist working one to one with clients in my treatment room. I became so frightened and convinced that if my husband could have me in 29 court hearings for doing precisely nothing wrong, then a client could make any allegation and I would be at the mercy of the courts. I could not live with that risk. So I have very little money and that makes life even more miserable.
blessings Annie
The real problem is that far more babies and young children are taken from happy well run homes for “risk of emotional abuse”(excellent adoption material) than for the physical abuse that killed children such as baby P and,Victoria Climbé,.(bad adoption material);
Victims of domestic violence are now frightened to report their assailants to the police who inevitably bring in social services. They in turn confiscate the children with a view to adoption even when the children have never been harmed and the mother has split up from her abusive partner !
Enormous resources are wasted chasing such mothers like Angela Wileman who was reported in a daily paper to have been pursued by British social services through courts first in Spain,then in Sweden and finally in Ireland where the sensible Irish courts decided this loving mother could keep her two children !I
In another case two desperate parents sent their daughter to the mother’s relatives in the Phillipines to escape a threatened care order, so a social worker was sent out to the Phillipines with the absurd mission of trying to persuade the young girl to leave her relatives and return to England to be put into care !!
Physical abuse kills,but “risk of emotional abuse” (crystal balls used?), untidy houses,absences from school,i witnessing but not suffering domestic violence,inability to work with “professionals”(this usually reults in a diagnosis of personality disorder !), lack of routine,are all defects that can be rectified by warnings and even when this does not work they do not kill.
Surely priority should be given to submitting all children suspected of suffering physical or sexual abuse to thorough monthly physical examinations by doctors who are competent to spot such injuries as a broken back and even bruises concealed by chocolate !
Barnardos partly live off adoptions so naturally their Director wants more and more!
I believe adoption is a wonderful thing if voluntary but a wicked,wicked deed when carried out after being opposed by a mother in court. I douby if Baby P’s mother would have gone through lengthy court processes to try and keep him despite his injuries !
The remedy that could prevent most unjust adoptions is simple. In every case where permanent separation of parent and child is envisaged the hearing should be decided by a jury who would give an independent verdict unlike judges who often criticise social services in adoption cases but nearly always end up deciding in their favour and so backing social workers against the parents .
Juries already operate in civil courts in libel cases and in cases involving complicated tax fraud so they would be more than capable of deciding if a mother should be separated from her child.Any burglar facing possible jail for six months or more can demand a trial by jury yet a mother (or father) facing a life sentence comprising permanent separation from beloved children is denied this option and that is very wrong !
we have been going through a torrid time since our grandson was unlawfully taken away in august 2009 due to a misdiagnosis of our gp to our grandson, he was diagnosed with a lump on the front of his ribs which was a cartlidge problem, when the gp said it was a healing fracture, but on x-ray he had a fracture to 1 rib at the back which no-one in our family knew about, social services have accused us by saying one of you did it and in the home, we have been cleared by the police, and the local authority conned our daughter into making concessions so as to get a mother and baby foster unit to be with her son, social sevices have been so sneaky that we have all appealed to get back into the pool of who done it, and we are fighting to clear our name and get our grandson back, the first social worker lied through her teeth, and they are going by what she says, yet the judge at the hearing stated that our grandson was taken unlawfully, yet they go by what the first social worker said,why? we shall continue to fight until we have no fight left and our birth family member is home, why should social services not be accountable for there actions, they are quick enough to take babies away, but cover it all up when they make mistakes, they should be exposed and exposed now