DAILY MAIL COMMENT: A crucial victory over family court secrecy
The chilling story of how a young couple were befriended by a ‘duplicitous and manipulative’ neighbour, who through a web of lies managed to gain custody of their two-year-old son, defies belief.
While masquerading as an avuncular figure and regularly babysitting the toddler, Colin English, 62, was simultaneously making false allegations to social services that the boy’s mother was unfit to look after him.
Despite the fact he had once been charged with murder and without even consulting the child’s parents, East Sussex social services swallowed this vile deception.
On their recommendation, a family court awarded custody to Mr and Mrs English.
It would be months before the mother got her son back, after a second court hearing in which the judge was scathing in her criticism of both English and the social services.
While masquerading as an avuncular figure and regularly babysitting the toddler, Colin English, 62, was simultaneously making false allegations to social services that the boy’s mother was unfit to look after him
That was six years ago. Yet it is only now, thanks to a legal battle by the Daily Mail, this troubling story can be told.
The mother had wanted to make her ordeal public in the hope lessons might be learned but she had been gagged by a court order.
Our lawyers challenged the decree on the grounds that this was a case of vital public interest. To the mother’s joy, we succeeded.
Although there have been efforts to make our notoriously secretive family courts more transparent, this appalling saga shows there’s a long way to go.
Yes, the vulnerable must be protected but reporting restrictions should never be used to cover up negligence and injustice.
With their failings exposed, East Sussex must now explain publicly what new safeguards have been put in place.
Furthermore, there is surely evidence of criminal behaviour by English yet Sussex Police have taken no action. Why not?
This paper doesn’t underestimate the complexity of family cases or the need for discretion. But wrongdoing and incompetence must be exposed to the disinfectant of sunlight.
One baleful consequence of the liberal orthodoxy that prevails in this country is the stifling of honest debate about the causes of social disintegration.
Of those, few could be more pressing than the devastating effects of family breakdown.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza lays bare the scale of this scourge, finding nearly half of British youngsters were raised by one biological parent.
This, she says, is unimportant as long as they have happy, loving, supportive families. Clearly, this is right. But like many in authority who fear causing offence, she skirts around an obvious truth.
The roots of our most serious problems lie in Britain’s disturbingly high rate of broken homes and absentee fathers.
Of course, many single parents do a magnificent job of raising their children to be hard-working and law-abiding.
But endless academic studies have found children brought up outside the traditional family are more likely to struggle at school, become dependent on welfare payments, fall into crime, and suffer mental illness.
Not long ago, the State placed such value on the stability of family life that the tax regime rewarded married couples. Since Labour abolished this benefit, they have received precious little state help.
This Tory Government should take practical action to support the view that children are best brought up by two parents. Family should not be an F-word.
The debt of gratitude the world owes Mikhail Gorbachev is incalculable. He ended the Cold War without bloodshed, dismantled the Soviet Union – paving the way for freedom in Eastern Europe – and oversaw communism’s collapse.
In Russia, he replaced totalitarianism with democracy, and oppression with openness.
How tragic these dreams are being crushed under the tyrannous heel of Vladimir Putin.
The debt of gratitude the world owes Mikhail Gorbachev is incalculable. He ended the Cold War without bloodshed, dismantled the Soviet Union – paving the way for freedom in Eastern Europe – and oversaw communism’s collapse
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