Post by Andy Peacher Tel 07827731060 on Mar 20, 2012 17:37:05 GMT
Ian Josephs M.A. (Oxon)
Telephone me in France: 0033626875684 for free legal advice! Monday - Friday 9am-5pm when possible! Remember to ask me, and I will ring you straight back at my expense! Or, contact me by email ian@monaco.mc . If you give me a contact phone number from any country you like no matter where you live. (MOBILES ARE OK !) and TIMES available to receive a call I can phone you back also at my expense.(Use a public phone box if you do not wish to reveal your number).I do not accept attachments unless agreed beforehand as they are time consuming and may contain viruses;please use regular email or fax documents to 0033493220967.For my replies, I type emails with one finger so in complicated cases I prefer where possible to telephone you as it takes a lot less time to advise you this way !
HOW TO USE THIS SITE !
1:-If you want to learn about the tyranny of social services and the family courts in the UK READ ON !
2:-If social services are already bothering you or even threatening you CLICK ON ABOVE AND SKIP STRAIGHT TO THE GOLDEN RULES !
3:-If the "SS" have already taken your children or grandchildren skip straight to the golden rules and the list of contacts plus how to represent yourself ,then turn to the section "get your children back" and note the parts that apply in your case.
It would help my record keeping if you sent me an email stating VERY simply your first name and those of your children or grand children plus their ages,your contact phone number(mobiles are ok), when the ss took them or threatened to take them ,and the reasons given by the judge or ss in two or three words only,eg emotional abuse,learning difficulties,domestic violence,drug or alcohol problems,unexplained injuries,failure to thrive,personality disorders, cluttered house,missed appointments,absences from school,dirty children's clothes etc etc
Please note ,I am not a solicitor or barrister but I do have a law degree from Oxford University and advise hundreds of parents every year (free of charge) on how to fight and sometimes win against social services .
IMPORTANT:-I am a businessman with language schools in Monaco and elsewhere.See www.regencyschool.com and www.hli.co.uk!! The "SS" have never hurt me my family or my friends,but I hate injustice and hate even more the secret courts that steal children from loving parents.
I first encountered these courts as a Kent County Councillor in 1960-66 applying for the discharge of care orders on behalf of parents in court against my own Council(before the Children Act 1989 stopped lay advisors from doing this) and I never lost a case!(see "History" later on ) That is why I NEVER take any money from parents for expenses or anything else.
I often refund parents "travel expenses" so that PREGNANT MOTHERS can escape to Ireland where there is NO forced adoption.(no passports needed).
If anyone you consult tries to charge you MONEY to help you,please pay them NOTHING as a lot of crooks operate on the internet taking cash from those who can least afford it ,and doing NOTHING in return !
ABOLISH FORCED ADOPTION!!
STOP PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME !!
My name is IAN JOSEPHS.I repeat again,UK Social services have never hurt me, my family, or my friends, but their wicked abuse of power has simply shocked me into action!"Forced adoption" too often legally deprives healthy,happy,children from all contact with their loving parents,brothers,sisters,grandparents,and other relatives for the rest of their lives! The UK is the ONLY country in Europe(apart from Croatia and perhaps Portugal) to tolerate "forced adoption" (adoption of children against the will of the parents).
Adoption is a wonderful thing for abandoned and neglected children if it is TRULY VOLUNTARY but is a wicked deed that should be severely punished if forced through the courts against the will and frantic opposition of loving parents.Worse still these parent VICTIMS are ruthlessly gagged !!Yes,here in the UK secret courts jail parents who dare to protest publicly when social workers take their babies at birth and arrange for them to be adopted by strangers.ONLY in the UK and NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD do they GAG parents whose children have been" confiscated"Some "lucky" mothers who discovered where their adopted children were living have been jailed for ringing the doorbell,waving at the children in the street, or sending them a Xmas card (three real cases ,and 3 mothers jailed!)on the grounds that they were undermining the forced adoption and committing a breach of the peace
Forgive me if I repeat myself too often in this "exposé" of the "SS" and the family courts,but the average person simply cannot believe that such things happen in "democratic Britain".Well,believe me they do! Repetition is necessary to reinforce your belief !
The UK is the ONLY country in Europe (apart from Croatia and perhaps Portugal) to tolerate the barbaric practice of forced adoption.The severing of all contact FOR LIFE between children and their birth parents .In effect a LIFE sentence without the opportunity of being heard by a jury, often imposed on parents who have committed no crime but who are said to be a risk to their children following predictions by overpaid charlatans working closely with the local authority.
Yes the UK family courts then mete out "PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME" The ONLY people in the UK who are punished without crime are parents whose children have been "confiscated" not by the hundreds but by the thousands; many because they are said to be "at risk" of emotional abuse!. The Family Courts presume parents once accused by social services, are guilty of abusing or neglecting their children unless they can prove their innocence (which rarely happens !).
Even worse the UK is the ONLY country in the world to GAG parents who wish to protest publicly when their children are taken.
The right of all citizens to protest publicly against what they perceive to be oppression by the State is what separates democracy from tyranny.
Long may it remain so !
Are there really parents who are punished by the State when they have committed no crimes?? YES !!The ONLY people in the UK who suffer this injustice are parents whose children are taken away after so called "experts" make predictions of the future such as "risk of emotional abuse".Most mothers would receive better and fairer treatment from the court if they killed their children (and benefited from the protection of criminal procedure) rather than tangle with the cold ferocity that demolishes 99.75%(judicial statistics) of the unfortunate parents who appear before the stern "establishment" judges sitting in our UK family courts.In other European countries such as France,Spain,and Italy,where "the family" is almost "sacred" they just cannot believe the barbarity of social workers in the UK when they take newborn babies from their mothers for "risk of emotional abuse",a concept completely unknown on the continent .Indeed the whole idea of "emotional abuse" is met with incredulity!
The three essential reforms we need are:-
1:- Freedom of SPEECH for parents at all times.
2:- Final hearings to be heard by JURIES
3:-An end to the Punishment of parents who have not committed any CRIME.
PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME !!!
The nightmare begins when social workers act like a second police force PUNISHING PARENTS who have NOT committed any crime. They do this by obtaining an emergency protection order "ex parte"( in the parents' absence)to take away children into foster care. They claim these children have "suffered emotional harm"or worse still are "at risk of emotional harm" ! On this basis an order is nearly always granted without any problem by a "friendly" magistrate. They then pressurise the parents with threats that if they do not "do what we tell you"or if they dare to discuss "the case" with their children or tell them "we love you and miss you"during "contact" the social services will stop contact and maybe never let those parents see their children again etc .Parents are GAGGED when speaking to their own children !
Even worse,when issuing interim care orders the "Family courts" have become "Kangaroo courts" . Interim care orders are issued on the basis of written statements from social workers and "hired experts" that cannot be questioned or disputed because these documents are not shown to the parents and in any case the authors are nearly always absent from court ! The parents' are rarely allowed to testify as not only the judge but also their own lawyers nearly always stop them from speaking !If they do by some miracle manage to testify, what they say is not only disbelieved it is almost always completely ignored !The interim care orders are usually renewed automatically every month for nearly a year before a final care hearing is held ,during which time the unfortunate children are isolated from their parents(except for very limited supervised contact periods) wondering what they have done wrong !
”Legal aid lawyers”,known in the trade as “professional losers” usually advise clients to “go along with social services”earning their fees the easy way ! Those few parents who succeed in winning and recovering their children are nearly always those who represent themselves.When this happens however judgements ,court documents,reports from experts, and position statements are often shown to parents at the last moment or not shown to them at all !As a consequence ,when local authorities apply for an interim care order in the family courts only one in 400 is refused !(official judicial statistics), so what chance do most of the unfortunate parents have?
To cap it all social workers only too often, go round schools and friends of parents and,by their loaded questions spread harmful rumours about the parents.The unfortunate parents however are warned (quite wrongly in fact) that they are forbidden to talk to ANYBODY about their case (they actually CAN talk to individuals for advice and support) .Those bold enough to protest publicly are jailed for their impertinence (200+ per year according to Harriet Harman answering a Parliamentary question, when she was minister for children).
Yes parents are legally GAGGED yet again, when their babies and toddlers are taken to protect the "privacy "of families and children !Grandparents,aunts,and uncles are excluded from the court in order (believe it or not !) to protect the children's privacy ! Social services however have no need to respect this "privacy" as they frequently advertise for adoption the children they have taken, with colour photos and first names in the Daily Mirror and other periodicals,much to the horror of parents when they see their offspring paraded for the public" to choose" like pedigree dogs!
Eventually many of these children get adopted ("Forced Adoption")and their siblings are often split up into different families despite the pleas of their parents who have been judged to pose a "risk of emotional abuse"to these babies and young children.Alone in Europe,only the UK (and perhaps Portugal and Croatia) tolerates forced adoption of children against the wishes of parents in court.In most cases,the parents never see or hear from their children for the rest of their lives,so these children are cut off for ever not only from their parents,but also their grandparents,aunts,uncles,cousins and quite often also from their own brothers and sisters ! The parents (and their children) are in effect punished not for something they have done but for something some so called "expert" (using a crystal ball?) thinks they might do in the future !Babies and young children who have been battered and physically abused (like baby P) are "poor adoption material" and no use to social workers hoping to "hit" their adoption targets,(PAF C23 Ofsted) so they are more often than not left to die alone....Children however, with just ONE unexplained injury such as a bruise,a burn, or a fractured arm but with no prior record of abuse or injuries still make good adoption material and are seized for that purpose even when there is no evidence that the parents were in any way responsible. IT'S "ONE STRIKE AND YOU ARE OUT".That is the cry of the "SS" and is typical of the way that "justice" is served up at our UK family courts !
This is the REALITY of what actually happens to parents falling foul of the "system".Is there a conspiracy?No need!Lawyers,fosterers,"experts",adoption agencies,social workers,and even judges all do very nicely out of the present system and have no need to conspire ,but naturally they do unite to resist, to COVER UP any mistakes they may have made if anyone threatens to "rock the boat" !
What reforms should the government introduce?Well,the social workers in "child protection" must be ordered to pass their enforcement functions back to the police, who should only remove children if crimes have been committed by parents that could adversely affect their capacity to care for the children. The family courts should adopt the rules of evidence that govern procedures in the criminal courts where fair and just rules of evidence now prevail.That is how it used to be before the Children Act 1948 when police and criminal courts(not social workers and family courts) dealt with removal of children from cruel or neglectful parents, and it worked much better !Parents would have the right to question their "accusers",demand final hearings by juries, and would no longer be gagged.Parents should no longer threatened with jail if they complain publicly when their children are taken,and should no longer be threatened with having their contact sessions with their children in care stopped if they dare to discuss their case with them.The Children Act 1989 should be amended to remove all gagging of parents wishing to discuss publicly matters concerning their children or to talk about their case with those children.HEARSAY evidence should never be preferred to live evidence (from children for instance) when live evidence is available.
www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/dec/12/strasbourg-ruling-hearsay-evidence
There would then at last be an excellent chance that most of these injustices would be eliminated.
Yes family courts should be criminal courts and children should only be taken from parents if they have committed or been charged with a crime.At the moment however babies are snatched at birth from perfectly innoffensive and law abiding parents for "risk of emotional abuse".This accusation is the social worker's"favourite"as it is quite impossible for parents to prove their innocence when so called "experts" predict what they might or might not do at some time in the future ! Incredibly,mothers lose their children to forced adoption not for anything they HAVE done but for what some overpaid charlatans (reading tea leaves or tarot cards?) predict they might do ! No you couldn't make it up !
Yes it's punishment without crime !!
Even the actual family court proceedings are fatally flawed . Only too often parents resisting a local authority application for an interim care order are faced with reports from social workers and "experts" who do not come to court and so cannot be questioned.Barristers read these reports as though they are themselves witnesses and present these reports made by absent officials and experts as though they are "gospel truth" . When the parents contradict them with live evidence in court the hearsay evidence coming from the local authority barristers is nearly always preferred !Furthermore,when the local authority employs an "expert" to rule on parents' mental state,non accidental injury to a child,or parents' general parenting skills those parents are routinely refused by a judge the opportunity to call experts of their own to counter those "expert opinions" .The result is that parents are then faced with reports by these experts who rarely turn up in court to be questioned. The parents are then informed that they have no qualifications so when the local authority's expert says they are not fit parents,then that is the evidence that must be believed !
The theory is that "adoption targets"(still very much in force via Ofsted PAF C23) are set to encourage social workers to find children languishing in care for years new permanent homes. The reality however is that adopters want babies not older children so social workers seize babies and toddlers to be put into care and from there into forced adoption with the agreement of compliant judges so that targets can be met !
Disgracefully in our family courts all the rules of evidence are casually "thrown out of the window". SHAME on our family court legal system and all those who support it !
EXAMPLES OF HOW RULES OF EVIDENCE HAVE BEEN DISCARDED IN THE FAMILY COURTs WHEN GRANTING INTERIM CARE ORDERS.
1:- Statements from the local authority are shown to the judge but rarely to parents.Family and friends of parents are routinely excluded from the court but groups of social workers are allowed to stay in the court to listen to their colleague's testimony whether they are witnesses or not.
2:- Parents representing themselves are denied the opportunity to cross examine witnesses appearing against them.Judgements,reports from experts,and position statements are either witheld or given to parents at the last minute (too late to read and analyse them properly).
3:- Parents are routinely refused permission to call for a second opinion when "experts" and Doctors have testified against them.If parents record contacts with their children, or interviews with experts or social workers judges routinely refuse permission for these recordings to be heard yet they always allow recordings and video evidence to be heard if produced by police or social workers.
4:-Parents whose children have been taken are routinely and wrongly told that they may not talk to ANYONE about their case.
5:-Parents are threatened with jail if they protest publlcly when their children are taken.They are also jailed for "breach of the peace" or "harassment" if they dare to trace and then contact their own children after adoption.Parents are therefore" twice gagged" contrary to the Human Rights Act ,Article 10 entitling all persons "freedom of expression",ie freedom of speech.
6:-Local authority barristers in court often read out statements from absent persons as though they are themselves witnesses but they cannot be questioned.
7:- Most solicitors refuse to let their clients speak and then agree to all care orders demanded by social services.They tell the hapless parents "it is better not to oppose the interim care order ,but to wait for the final hearing",ignoring the position set out below (in red) where L.J.Thorpe makes it very clear that the parents are so prejudiced by the proceedings thereafter that it is "very difficult to get a child back" after a removal hearing.
8:-Judges routinely castigate parents who wish to speak or who represent themselves even though they have the right to do so;Their evidence and their arguments are usually ignored in the judgements.
9;-Parents representing themselves are often given an hour or two's notice to appear in court but solicitors are given weeks !
10:-Parents are punished for "risk" ie not what they have done but for what they might do in the future! "Risk of emotional abuse" is favourite because there is no legal definition of this and it is usually impossible for parents to defend themselves against "predictions" by so called "experts" who are often unqualified (20% according to the latest report!)
11:-Judges give social workers the power to withold parent's contact with their children" in care" as a punishment for saying they love them and miss them or that they are fighting to get them back .Foreign children are forbidden to speak their own language with their parents or relatives,mobile phones are confiscated,and children in care are denied the basicrights accorded to murderers and rapists in prison!They use this power to gag parents and force them into complete submission !
12:-Parents are in effect condemned for offences against their children on "probabilities" 51% instead of beyond reasonable doubt.They can be acquitted in the high court and,the appeal court,and even when all charges have been dropped by the police social services can overule all those bodies and condemn parents on 51% probability (nearly half the time they could be wrong!) and take their children into care with a view to forced adoption.
13:-Parents who were themselves in care or who were abused in childhood are often judged unfit to be parents as a result.Their past misdemeanours such as shoplifting,or destruction of property (often 10 years ago or more)
are inevitably used against them during proceedings in court to prove them unfit parents.This would be illegal in a criminal court.
14:-Parents often forfeit their children for "failing to engage with professionals"The very persons who tell them and their neighbours that the children will never be returned !
15:-Parents faced with forced adoption lose their children for life, without being allowed a hearing by jury.
16:-Under the UN Convention on children's rights,and a recent Supreme Court case (W a child), children have a RIGHT to be heard in court but are usually denied that right.
17:-Solicitors routinely tell client parents to agree to interim care orders or they risk never seeing their children again.A lie !
18:-Social workers are legally obliged to place children with relatives if possible but either ignore this or find pretexts to fail them on assessments
19:-Human rights to free speech and freedom of movement are breached by gagging orders, confiscating passports,and even "prohibited steps" that limit parent's movements and can force them to remain in the same flat or house indefinitely !
20:-The Children Act specifically instructs social workers to reunite families wherever possible and to place children removed from their parents with relatives.In practice couples are urged to separate,to quit their jobs and go on benefits so as to keep awkward contact times with their children and to be free to meet social workers etc for meetings whenever summoned to do so.Relatives such a grandparents,aunts,and uncles are set aside to be "assessed" and ore often than not fail on the grounds that they are too friendly with the parents or maybe had a difficult past 10 years ago or more,or simply that they are too old in their forties or fifties even though this does not apply to fosterers .Theory and practice are a long way apart in our family courts;
Telephone me in France: 0033626875684 for free legal advice! Monday - Friday 9am-5pm when possible! Remember to ask me, and I will ring you straight back at my expense! Or, contact me by email ian@monaco.mc . If you give me a contact phone number from any country you like no matter where you live. (MOBILES ARE OK !) and TIMES available to receive a call I can phone you back also at my expense.(Use a public phone box if you do not wish to reveal your number).I do not accept attachments unless agreed beforehand as they are time consuming and may contain viruses;please use regular email or fax documents to 0033493220967.For my replies, I type emails with one finger so in complicated cases I prefer where possible to telephone you as it takes a lot less time to advise you this way !
HOW TO USE THIS SITE !
1:-If you want to learn about the tyranny of social services and the family courts in the UK READ ON !
2:-If social services are already bothering you or even threatening you CLICK ON ABOVE AND SKIP STRAIGHT TO THE GOLDEN RULES !
3:-If the "SS" have already taken your children or grandchildren skip straight to the golden rules and the list of contacts plus how to represent yourself ,then turn to the section "get your children back" and note the parts that apply in your case.
It would help my record keeping if you sent me an email stating VERY simply your first name and those of your children or grand children plus their ages,your contact phone number(mobiles are ok), when the ss took them or threatened to take them ,and the reasons given by the judge or ss in two or three words only,eg emotional abuse,learning difficulties,domestic violence,drug or alcohol problems,unexplained injuries,failure to thrive,personality disorders, cluttered house,missed appointments,absences from school,dirty children's clothes etc etc
Please note ,I am not a solicitor or barrister but I do have a law degree from Oxford University and advise hundreds of parents every year (free of charge) on how to fight and sometimes win against social services .
IMPORTANT:-I am a businessman with language schools in Monaco and elsewhere.See www.regencyschool.com and www.hli.co.uk!! The "SS" have never hurt me my family or my friends,but I hate injustice and hate even more the secret courts that steal children from loving parents.
I first encountered these courts as a Kent County Councillor in 1960-66 applying for the discharge of care orders on behalf of parents in court against my own Council(before the Children Act 1989 stopped lay advisors from doing this) and I never lost a case!(see "History" later on ) That is why I NEVER take any money from parents for expenses or anything else.
I often refund parents "travel expenses" so that PREGNANT MOTHERS can escape to Ireland where there is NO forced adoption.(no passports needed).
If anyone you consult tries to charge you MONEY to help you,please pay them NOTHING as a lot of crooks operate on the internet taking cash from those who can least afford it ,and doing NOTHING in return !
ABOLISH FORCED ADOPTION!!
STOP PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME !!
My name is IAN JOSEPHS.I repeat again,UK Social services have never hurt me, my family, or my friends, but their wicked abuse of power has simply shocked me into action!"Forced adoption" too often legally deprives healthy,happy,children from all contact with their loving parents,brothers,sisters,grandparents,and other relatives for the rest of their lives! The UK is the ONLY country in Europe(apart from Croatia and perhaps Portugal) to tolerate "forced adoption" (adoption of children against the will of the parents).
Adoption is a wonderful thing for abandoned and neglected children if it is TRULY VOLUNTARY but is a wicked deed that should be severely punished if forced through the courts against the will and frantic opposition of loving parents.Worse still these parent VICTIMS are ruthlessly gagged !!Yes,here in the UK secret courts jail parents who dare to protest publicly when social workers take their babies at birth and arrange for them to be adopted by strangers.ONLY in the UK and NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD do they GAG parents whose children have been" confiscated"Some "lucky" mothers who discovered where their adopted children were living have been jailed for ringing the doorbell,waving at the children in the street, or sending them a Xmas card (three real cases ,and 3 mothers jailed!)on the grounds that they were undermining the forced adoption and committing a breach of the peace
Forgive me if I repeat myself too often in this "exposé" of the "SS" and the family courts,but the average person simply cannot believe that such things happen in "democratic Britain".Well,believe me they do! Repetition is necessary to reinforce your belief !
The UK is the ONLY country in Europe (apart from Croatia and perhaps Portugal) to tolerate the barbaric practice of forced adoption.The severing of all contact FOR LIFE between children and their birth parents .In effect a LIFE sentence without the opportunity of being heard by a jury, often imposed on parents who have committed no crime but who are said to be a risk to their children following predictions by overpaid charlatans working closely with the local authority.
Yes the UK family courts then mete out "PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME" The ONLY people in the UK who are punished without crime are parents whose children have been "confiscated" not by the hundreds but by the thousands; many because they are said to be "at risk" of emotional abuse!. The Family Courts presume parents once accused by social services, are guilty of abusing or neglecting their children unless they can prove their innocence (which rarely happens !).
Even worse the UK is the ONLY country in the world to GAG parents who wish to protest publicly when their children are taken.
The right of all citizens to protest publicly against what they perceive to be oppression by the State is what separates democracy from tyranny.
Long may it remain so !
Are there really parents who are punished by the State when they have committed no crimes?? YES !!The ONLY people in the UK who suffer this injustice are parents whose children are taken away after so called "experts" make predictions of the future such as "risk of emotional abuse".Most mothers would receive better and fairer treatment from the court if they killed their children (and benefited from the protection of criminal procedure) rather than tangle with the cold ferocity that demolishes 99.75%(judicial statistics) of the unfortunate parents who appear before the stern "establishment" judges sitting in our UK family courts.In other European countries such as France,Spain,and Italy,where "the family" is almost "sacred" they just cannot believe the barbarity of social workers in the UK when they take newborn babies from their mothers for "risk of emotional abuse",a concept completely unknown on the continent .Indeed the whole idea of "emotional abuse" is met with incredulity!
The three essential reforms we need are:-
1:- Freedom of SPEECH for parents at all times.
2:- Final hearings to be heard by JURIES
3:-An end to the Punishment of parents who have not committed any CRIME.
PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME !!!
The nightmare begins when social workers act like a second police force PUNISHING PARENTS who have NOT committed any crime. They do this by obtaining an emergency protection order "ex parte"( in the parents' absence)to take away children into foster care. They claim these children have "suffered emotional harm"or worse still are "at risk of emotional harm" ! On this basis an order is nearly always granted without any problem by a "friendly" magistrate. They then pressurise the parents with threats that if they do not "do what we tell you"or if they dare to discuss "the case" with their children or tell them "we love you and miss you"during "contact" the social services will stop contact and maybe never let those parents see their children again etc .Parents are GAGGED when speaking to their own children !
Even worse,when issuing interim care orders the "Family courts" have become "Kangaroo courts" . Interim care orders are issued on the basis of written statements from social workers and "hired experts" that cannot be questioned or disputed because these documents are not shown to the parents and in any case the authors are nearly always absent from court ! The parents' are rarely allowed to testify as not only the judge but also their own lawyers nearly always stop them from speaking !If they do by some miracle manage to testify, what they say is not only disbelieved it is almost always completely ignored !The interim care orders are usually renewed automatically every month for nearly a year before a final care hearing is held ,during which time the unfortunate children are isolated from their parents(except for very limited supervised contact periods) wondering what they have done wrong !
”Legal aid lawyers”,known in the trade as “professional losers” usually advise clients to “go along with social services”earning their fees the easy way ! Those few parents who succeed in winning and recovering their children are nearly always those who represent themselves.When this happens however judgements ,court documents,reports from experts, and position statements are often shown to parents at the last moment or not shown to them at all !As a consequence ,when local authorities apply for an interim care order in the family courts only one in 400 is refused !(official judicial statistics), so what chance do most of the unfortunate parents have?
To cap it all social workers only too often, go round schools and friends of parents and,by their loaded questions spread harmful rumours about the parents.The unfortunate parents however are warned (quite wrongly in fact) that they are forbidden to talk to ANYBODY about their case (they actually CAN talk to individuals for advice and support) .Those bold enough to protest publicly are jailed for their impertinence (200+ per year according to Harriet Harman answering a Parliamentary question, when she was minister for children).
Yes parents are legally GAGGED yet again, when their babies and toddlers are taken to protect the "privacy "of families and children !Grandparents,aunts,and uncles are excluded from the court in order (believe it or not !) to protect the children's privacy ! Social services however have no need to respect this "privacy" as they frequently advertise for adoption the children they have taken, with colour photos and first names in the Daily Mirror and other periodicals,much to the horror of parents when they see their offspring paraded for the public" to choose" like pedigree dogs!
Eventually many of these children get adopted ("Forced Adoption")and their siblings are often split up into different families despite the pleas of their parents who have been judged to pose a "risk of emotional abuse"to these babies and young children.Alone in Europe,only the UK (and perhaps Portugal and Croatia) tolerates forced adoption of children against the wishes of parents in court.In most cases,the parents never see or hear from their children for the rest of their lives,so these children are cut off for ever not only from their parents,but also their grandparents,aunts,uncles,cousins and quite often also from their own brothers and sisters ! The parents (and their children) are in effect punished not for something they have done but for something some so called "expert" (using a crystal ball?) thinks they might do in the future !Babies and young children who have been battered and physically abused (like baby P) are "poor adoption material" and no use to social workers hoping to "hit" their adoption targets,(PAF C23 Ofsted) so they are more often than not left to die alone....Children however, with just ONE unexplained injury such as a bruise,a burn, or a fractured arm but with no prior record of abuse or injuries still make good adoption material and are seized for that purpose even when there is no evidence that the parents were in any way responsible. IT'S "ONE STRIKE AND YOU ARE OUT".That is the cry of the "SS" and is typical of the way that "justice" is served up at our UK family courts !
This is the REALITY of what actually happens to parents falling foul of the "system".Is there a conspiracy?No need!Lawyers,fosterers,"experts",adoption agencies,social workers,and even judges all do very nicely out of the present system and have no need to conspire ,but naturally they do unite to resist, to COVER UP any mistakes they may have made if anyone threatens to "rock the boat" !
What reforms should the government introduce?Well,the social workers in "child protection" must be ordered to pass their enforcement functions back to the police, who should only remove children if crimes have been committed by parents that could adversely affect their capacity to care for the children. The family courts should adopt the rules of evidence that govern procedures in the criminal courts where fair and just rules of evidence now prevail.That is how it used to be before the Children Act 1948 when police and criminal courts(not social workers and family courts) dealt with removal of children from cruel or neglectful parents, and it worked much better !Parents would have the right to question their "accusers",demand final hearings by juries, and would no longer be gagged.Parents should no longer threatened with jail if they complain publicly when their children are taken,and should no longer be threatened with having their contact sessions with their children in care stopped if they dare to discuss their case with them.The Children Act 1989 should be amended to remove all gagging of parents wishing to discuss publicly matters concerning their children or to talk about their case with those children.HEARSAY evidence should never be preferred to live evidence (from children for instance) when live evidence is available.
www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/dec/12/strasbourg-ruling-hearsay-evidence
There would then at last be an excellent chance that most of these injustices would be eliminated.
Yes family courts should be criminal courts and children should only be taken from parents if they have committed or been charged with a crime.At the moment however babies are snatched at birth from perfectly innoffensive and law abiding parents for "risk of emotional abuse".This accusation is the social worker's"favourite"as it is quite impossible for parents to prove their innocence when so called "experts" predict what they might or might not do at some time in the future ! Incredibly,mothers lose their children to forced adoption not for anything they HAVE done but for what some overpaid charlatans (reading tea leaves or tarot cards?) predict they might do ! No you couldn't make it up !
Yes it's punishment without crime !!
Even the actual family court proceedings are fatally flawed . Only too often parents resisting a local authority application for an interim care order are faced with reports from social workers and "experts" who do not come to court and so cannot be questioned.Barristers read these reports as though they are themselves witnesses and present these reports made by absent officials and experts as though they are "gospel truth" . When the parents contradict them with live evidence in court the hearsay evidence coming from the local authority barristers is nearly always preferred !Furthermore,when the local authority employs an "expert" to rule on parents' mental state,non accidental injury to a child,or parents' general parenting skills those parents are routinely refused by a judge the opportunity to call experts of their own to counter those "expert opinions" .The result is that parents are then faced with reports by these experts who rarely turn up in court to be questioned. The parents are then informed that they have no qualifications so when the local authority's expert says they are not fit parents,then that is the evidence that must be believed !
The theory is that "adoption targets"(still very much in force via Ofsted PAF C23) are set to encourage social workers to find children languishing in care for years new permanent homes. The reality however is that adopters want babies not older children so social workers seize babies and toddlers to be put into care and from there into forced adoption with the agreement of compliant judges so that targets can be met !
Disgracefully in our family courts all the rules of evidence are casually "thrown out of the window". SHAME on our family court legal system and all those who support it !
EXAMPLES OF HOW RULES OF EVIDENCE HAVE BEEN DISCARDED IN THE FAMILY COURTs WHEN GRANTING INTERIM CARE ORDERS.
1:- Statements from the local authority are shown to the judge but rarely to parents.Family and friends of parents are routinely excluded from the court but groups of social workers are allowed to stay in the court to listen to their colleague's testimony whether they are witnesses or not.
2:- Parents representing themselves are denied the opportunity to cross examine witnesses appearing against them.Judgements,reports from experts,and position statements are either witheld or given to parents at the last minute (too late to read and analyse them properly).
3:- Parents are routinely refused permission to call for a second opinion when "experts" and Doctors have testified against them.If parents record contacts with their children, or interviews with experts or social workers judges routinely refuse permission for these recordings to be heard yet they always allow recordings and video evidence to be heard if produced by police or social workers.
4:-Parents whose children have been taken are routinely and wrongly told that they may not talk to ANYONE about their case.
5:-Parents are threatened with jail if they protest publlcly when their children are taken.They are also jailed for "breach of the peace" or "harassment" if they dare to trace and then contact their own children after adoption.Parents are therefore" twice gagged" contrary to the Human Rights Act ,Article 10 entitling all persons "freedom of expression",ie freedom of speech.
6:-Local authority barristers in court often read out statements from absent persons as though they are themselves witnesses but they cannot be questioned.
7:- Most solicitors refuse to let their clients speak and then agree to all care orders demanded by social services.They tell the hapless parents "it is better not to oppose the interim care order ,but to wait for the final hearing",ignoring the position set out below (in red) where L.J.Thorpe makes it very clear that the parents are so prejudiced by the proceedings thereafter that it is "very difficult to get a child back" after a removal hearing.
8:-Judges routinely castigate parents who wish to speak or who represent themselves even though they have the right to do so;Their evidence and their arguments are usually ignored in the judgements.
9;-Parents representing themselves are often given an hour or two's notice to appear in court but solicitors are given weeks !
10:-Parents are punished for "risk" ie not what they have done but for what they might do in the future! "Risk of emotional abuse" is favourite because there is no legal definition of this and it is usually impossible for parents to defend themselves against "predictions" by so called "experts" who are often unqualified (20% according to the latest report!)
11:-Judges give social workers the power to withold parent's contact with their children" in care" as a punishment for saying they love them and miss them or that they are fighting to get them back .Foreign children are forbidden to speak their own language with their parents or relatives,mobile phones are confiscated,and children in care are denied the basicrights accorded to murderers and rapists in prison!They use this power to gag parents and force them into complete submission !
12:-Parents are in effect condemned for offences against their children on "probabilities" 51% instead of beyond reasonable doubt.They can be acquitted in the high court and,the appeal court,and even when all charges have been dropped by the police social services can overule all those bodies and condemn parents on 51% probability (nearly half the time they could be wrong!) and take their children into care with a view to forced adoption.
13:-Parents who were themselves in care or who were abused in childhood are often judged unfit to be parents as a result.Their past misdemeanours such as shoplifting,or destruction of property (often 10 years ago or more)
are inevitably used against them during proceedings in court to prove them unfit parents.This would be illegal in a criminal court.
14:-Parents often forfeit their children for "failing to engage with professionals"The very persons who tell them and their neighbours that the children will never be returned !
15:-Parents faced with forced adoption lose their children for life, without being allowed a hearing by jury.
16:-Under the UN Convention on children's rights,and a recent Supreme Court case (W a child), children have a RIGHT to be heard in court but are usually denied that right.
17:-Solicitors routinely tell client parents to agree to interim care orders or they risk never seeing their children again.A lie !
18:-Social workers are legally obliged to place children with relatives if possible but either ignore this or find pretexts to fail them on assessments
19:-Human rights to free speech and freedom of movement are breached by gagging orders, confiscating passports,and even "prohibited steps" that limit parent's movements and can force them to remain in the same flat or house indefinitely !
20:-The Children Act specifically instructs social workers to reunite families wherever possible and to place children removed from their parents with relatives.In practice couples are urged to separate,to quit their jobs and go on benefits so as to keep awkward contact times with their children and to be free to meet social workers etc for meetings whenever summoned to do so.Relatives such a grandparents,aunts,and uncles are set aside to be "assessed" and ore often than not fail on the grounds that they are too friendly with the parents or maybe had a difficult past 10 years ago or more,or simply that they are too old in their forties or fifties even though this does not apply to fosterers .Theory and practice are a long way apart in our family courts;
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