Total Family Destruction

April 19, 2015 permalink

Christopher Booker follows up on the case of a mother jailed for a comment to her lawyer. The mother has permanently lost her daughter. The boy who was the cousin and closest friend of the lost girl has died in an accident, leaving a girl and two mothers bereft.

expand

collapse

A family torn apart twice over

Two mothers have been left bereft by a tragic accident and badly applied law

The girl had been taken into foster 'care' because her mother was assaulted by a man who was sent to prison

Photo: Alamy

By Christopher Booker, 6:26PM BST 18 Apr 2015

I recently had an anguished call from the aunt of a young boy who had died in a tragic and widely reported accident. The boy’s distraught mother was her sister. I know this capable woman, because a year ago I told the bizarre story of how social workers had taken away her own daughter, a cousin of the dead boy. The children had grown up so close that they were “like brother and sister”.

As I reported, under the heading “If emotional abuse is to be a crime, who is guilty here?”, the girl had been taken into foster “care” only because her mother was assaulted by a man who was sent to prison. When, at a “contact session”, the mother was shocked to see her daughter covered in bruises, she raised this with the social workers, who dismissed it as of no importance. Next day, meeting to discuss another matter with a young trainee solicitor, she mentioned her dismay at the social workers’ response, casually adding that this was the kind of thing that prompted so many parents to escape with their children to other countries to prevent them being taken into care.

Completely misunderstanding what the mother had meant, the solicitor reported to the social workers her suspicion that the mother was intending to “abduct” her daughter to flee abroad. The mother was arrested. After a very odd trial, and solely on the solicitor’s evidence, she was sent to prison for a year. On her release, and despite evidence from the child’s “guardian” that the daughter’s only wish was to come home, the social workers convinced a judge that the girl should have no further contact with any of her family, including her beloved cousin. Now the boy is dead. Having not seen her mother for two years, the once happy little girl is still miserably in “care”. The two mothers are utterly bereft.

Source: Telegraph (UK)