FEAR OF UNBORN CHILD'S ADOPTION CAUSES COUPLE TO FLEE UK

Kevin Reardon / The Leader

December 27, 2009

The couple were forced to spend Christmas without the company of family and friends

A Suffolk couple have been forced to flee the UK rather than take the risk of losing their unborn child. Talking to a leading British newspaper the couple said that they had already lost their nine week old daughter when the Social Services declared them to be unfit parents.

They said that their lives were totally destroyed when Suffolk Social Services simply took their daughter into care while they were physically restrained by the police. Her removal came about despite there being no allegations against their fitness to bring her up. They have subsequently been allowed no contact with her or with her adoptive parents which they find to be absolutely heartbreaking.

The action taken by the Social services has led the pair to believe that the Suffolk council officials will act again immediately the mother gives birth in the early part of next year.

Speaking from their temporary home, a rented flat in Algorfa which is being paid for by their families, the couple, a 32 year old woman and her 41 year old partner, said that the mother is planning to have her child in a local Spanish hospital. They said that neither of them is prepared to travel back home again because they fear that once in the UK, they will have an order placed on them by Social services preventing them from leaving the country.

The partner is currently fighting the order to take away the nine week old daughter an act that was criticised by the couples local MP, Tim Yeo. He said that the council had kidnapped the child purely to boost their adoption figures. "This council actively seeks opportunities to remove babies from their mothers. Its social work staff do so in a manner which in my view is sometimes tantamount to child kidnapping,” Mr Yea told fellow MPs.

The council, however, refuted the MP’s statement saying that it did not have targets to meet. It was simply following national guidelines and existing legislation provided to the adoption service.

Meanwhile the partner has recently had a telephone conversation with a judge in the Royal Courts of Justice. He said that if their appeal is successful they will go back to the UK like a shot so that the mother can be reunited with her daughter.