Guilty of Nothing but Still Lose Their Daughter to forced adoption

Story (By Nick Tarver)

Judge admits reason for forced adoption wouldn’t convince a jury

A JUDGE has crushed the hopes of a couple who fought to be reunited with their little girl after she was put up for adoption be social services – even though he said the evidence used to keep the family apart would not stand up in a criminal court.

The couple, who along with their daughter cannot be named due to a draconian injunction brought against the Advertiser by Enfield Council, had their child taken from them four years ago on the vague basis that she may suffer “potential future harm”.

This was because the father had been accused – though never charged – of shaking his son from a previous marriage, leading to that child being brain damaged.

Perversely, social services allow the father full and unsupervised access to his disabled son. But when he remarried and his daughter was born, social workers, backed by police, stormed into their house when she was just four days old and took the child from it’s mother, claiming the baby was at risk.

The father has consistently denied hurting his son and the couple were given a final chance to win their daughter back by challenging the shaken baby accusation in the High Court.

But the judge, Mr Justice Mark Hedley failed to support their case, despite saying: “The father has never been prosecuted for any offence nor have I seen evidence on which a jury could be invited to be sure of guilt of any offence.”

Appealing to the judge after the ruling, the tearful mother said: “You know it’s my only child – I have none nothing wrong and neither has my husband.”

And the father told the Advertiser that although the family will seek an appeal on the judgement, there is little chance it will be successful. He said: “I feel like my heart has just been ripped out – even in his own ruling the judge said I hadn’t been prosecuted.

“In a criminal court I would be found not guilty and we would little girl be with our girl right now. We have been given a life sentence and what they have taken away from us will last forever.”

The Mother – who has never been accused of any wrong doing whatsoever – was told that unless she leaves her husband she will never have custody of her child.

Adoption proceedings are due to go ahead within the next couple of months and it is now extremely unlikely the family can stop them.