Enfuriated mother attacked social worker

By Ruby Harrold-Claesson

This article was written by Ruby Harrold-Claesson for the NCHR's nordic page and published under the title "Arg mamma attackerade tjänsteman". It has been translated by the author.

On November 11, 1998, The Gothenburg Post reported an incident with the titel: Enfuriated mother attacked social worker.

According to the newspaper, the background to the incident was this: The social worker arrived at the woman's residence to take her two children into public care. She left the apartment beaten up.

The children's 33 year old mother was prosecuted for violence towards a civil servant, alternatively ill-treatment.

The build up to the incident was the following: On February 2, 1998, a woman from Bishops Yard (Biskopsgården) made a call to the social services. She informed them that she had taken in two children, aged two and four years, who had been running around outdoors in the snowstorm without winter clothing. When she tried to return them to their home, she had found the mother in deep sleep, possibly very drunk. It should be noted that people who know the mother well certify that she neither uses alcohol or drugs.

The social workers claim that they have had previous complaints about the mother, so they decided to take the children into care. Two persons drove over to her home, accompanied by two plain-clothes policemen.

The newspaper article states that while the social workers and the plain-clothes policemen were at the neighbour's home to fetch the children, the mother turned up and the situation became disturbing.

"She was aggressive and completely out of control", one of the social worker said at the police interrogation.

To begin with, the mother grabbed hold of the second social worker's throat to strangle her then she punched her in the face, according to the article. The blow was so forceful that the social worker stumbled backwards and looked dizzy, her colleague told the newspaper.

The article relates that all the people involved have described the incident as chaotic, with raised voices and threats. Someone said that the mother held her small son against the balcony railing at one time, and that she leveled a new punch at the social worker, but this time a policeman came between them.

According to the information in the article, the two policemen found it impossible to perform their duty to give assistance to the social workers who wanted to take the children into care, so in the end they had to call for more assistance. And, before the situation was completely under control, the raging mother had elbowed one of the policemen in the eye.

The mother admitted during the interrogation that she had employed violence, but that it was a question of self-protection. The mother was sentenced to one month's imprisonment because she, like any other mother in the animal kingdom, tried to protect her young from being removed from her care.

The mother was sentenced to prison for violence towards a civil servant and the children were deprived of their mother. They were taken into care - just like the social worker had decided from the start - and they are still in care.


Destroying the family - Swedish style

Spectre of Children's Gulag haunts Sweden

The attitude of the social professions involved in the child protection sector

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