Four year old boy looking for pro-bono legal assistance
- Details
- Category: Pro Bono Work
- Created: Tuesday, 24 July 2012 21:08
- Written by Alecomm2
One of our more serious cases involves a (now) four year old boy who was taken from his family when he was about eighteen months old. The removal was by the NSW Department of Community Services and unfortunately was neither warranted or legitimate. So much that not long after, the family won restoration of the boy (meaning he is to be sent home), in district court. The disgruntled NSW Department of Community Services refused to restore the boy to his family, and the matter has been fought in the courts ever since.
Since being removed from his loving family, the boy has developed mental disorders including Reactive Attachment Disorder from being removed from his family, and then passed from pillar to post , from one foster home to another, like a hot potato. Reactive Attachment Disorder, otherwise known as RAD, is a long-term disability that will affect the rest of this boys life - and the only possibility of him returning to normal is for him to be sent hom where he belongs and is loved. The boy has had over eight foster care placements in his very short life.
The matter (case) has also been fought in the Supreme Court of NSW; and the grandmother and the mother won against DoCS again, with the matter being remitted back to the Children's Court for rehearing, however Dennis Chapman of Gosford, the solicitor at the time, filed incorrect paperwork stating that the family objected to the restoration plan, and as a consequence has made the matter somewhat impossible ever since.
The Supreme Court magistrate at the time stated that the mother, grandmother and maternal family have been the boy's only "Stability" in his life which was part of the reason for the decision to rehear the matter, not to mention that the restoration had already been previously ordered and should not have been wasting tax payers funds having the same matter reheard in another court because DoCS officers did not like the result.
The family are of aboriginal descent, and identify as aboriginal, yet the boy has never been placed with an aboriginal family, nor has his culture or identity been "kept", so to speak, by the department claiming to be there for the protection of this child. This is a blatant violation of Section 13 of the Child and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1987 in which these facts must be taken into consideration. Furthermore, after DoCS continually refused to let the grandmother have kinship care of the child (although she raised four children of her own), the sister applied for kinship care also. The sister has two lovely children and is a school teacher, and would have ensured that the boy's aboriginality and cultural identity were kept on top of him being with family -- a much better placement that a continual line of foster carers who cannot raise the boy due to his (now-developed) behaviour.
The NSW Department of Community Services did an incorrect assessment of the sister and refused to let the child be placed with her stating that he (now) needs a one on one carer --- this being due to the Reactive Attachment Disorder that he has developed since the Department of Community Services has denied him his family, yet they then placed him with .... wait a minute ... a family with one biological child who has autism, two other children whom both have autism, three children who have aspbergers and another two foster children. DoCS placed this boy that they denied living with his family because they stated he needs "one on one", with seven other foster children. Can you believe this! There is much more to this story, so if you are interested in the slightest in assisting this boy to be placed back to where he should be and giving him and his basic human rights, please contact us here at Alecomm as soon as possible.
We say "as soon as possible" because the past two occasions that the mother and grandmother have seen the child, he was that drugged that he could not speak, he was dribbling profusely from his mouth, and his gross motor skills were extremely inhibited. This boy is being drugged to keep him quiet about the fact that he just wants to go home. Before DoCS, this boy was safe, happy and loved. Now he has mental health issues and is on drugs. He is only four years old. Please help him.
