BLUNDERING
SOCIAL WORKERS
Unsubstantiated accusations of child abuse
In
Newport, South Wales, in August 2004 a father went upstairs to see an
11-year-old visiting boy lying on top of his daughter, then aged five. The
father alerted police but a medical examination carried out as part of the
subsequent investigation resulted in social services claiming that the child
had been abused by an adult. As a result, the family's three children were
taken into foster care, with their parents being allowed two visits each week,
lasting one and a half hours, at a neutral venue.
The case against the parents collapsed
after the family consulted an American doctor who found there was no suggestion
of any sexual abuse. The parents who were wrongly accused of child abuse are
now considering legal action for compensation against the council for the two
years their children spent in care.
Cases like these are very frequent in Sweden and the Nordic countries. Here
parents are guilty even after they are proven innocent. See for eg The
Niko Case, The Götene
Case and Child
protection or child abuse? on the NCHR's web site.
Articles published in The Telegraph October 19, 2006 –
Two-year
nightmare of the family torn apart by 'abuse' case blunders
By Richard Savill
A couple
wrongly accused of child abuse were yesterday considering legal action for
compensation against a council for the two years their children spent in care.
Tim
and Gina Williams were reunited with their three children last month after a
judge exonerated them and praised their dignity.
Due
Care
Opinion posted in the Telegraph
Having children taken into care is one of the most traumatic events
parents can face. For children, it is even worse: they lose their home, parents
and siblings, often without understanding why. That such a trauma could be
inflicted on a household without any wrongdoing by the parents, as in the case
of the Williams family from Newport in Wales that we report today, is truly
appalling.
A
system that abuses the whole family
By Cassandra Jardine
Cassandra
Jardine on the scandal of parents presumed guilty and children rushed into care
'One
minute we are a family, the next thing we know, social services are taking the
children away," said Tim Williams, the father of three from Newport whose
children have spent two years in foster care following false allegations of
sexual abuse.