"Haringey council tried to crush our family"
- Details
- Category: Uncategorised
- Created: Saturday, 06 April 2013 23:30
- Written by Eileen Fairweather
This woman and her husband, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made history last month as the first parents successfully to sue a council after being wrongly accused of child abuse. Their unprecedented High Court victory took 22 long months and all their savings. “But what’s money compared to your good name?” the woman asks.
Haringey council is notorious for its high-profile failures in child protection. Victoria Climbié and Baby P, who were tortured to death after social workers, managers, officials and doctors ignored numerous warning signs, will never be forgotten by the public, nor the council forgiven. In this latest case, which highlights different but equally alarming failings, the Labour authority turned on an innocent couple after receiving a single anonymous letter claiming the mother had “shouted” at and “slapped” her six-year-old.
The possible consequences were dire: the loss of their child to care, fostering or even adoption and the end of their careers. The father, CD, is a senior social worker, and the mother, AB, is a respected freelance social work trainer.
Judge Anthony Thornton’s judicial review drew the “inescapable conclusion” that the authority had illegally escalated its inquiry to the highest possible level purely because the mother had the temerity to complain. She did so after it blackened her name and broke all guidelines by telling police, the family GP and their child’s school that the child, EF, was the suspected victim of serious abuse – without any supporting evidence. (Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9977557/Haringey-council-tried-to-crush-our-family.html)
