Council told to pay £40,000 damages after girl unlawfully kept in care
Council bosses have been ordered to pay £40,000 damages by a family court judge who concluded that a little girl was unlawfully kept in care after her mother suffered a bout of mental illness.
Judge Mary Lazarus said the youngster – now seven – was unlawfully accommodated by Medway Council, which is based in Chatham, Kent, for more than two years.
The judge said the council had breached the human rights of the girl and her mother.
And she said each should get £20,000 damages.
The girl was placed in foster care in early 2013 after her mother suffered an “extremely serious” episode of depression and was detained in hospital under the terms of mental health legislation, said the judge.
Lawyers for the girl and her mother complained that the decision to take the girl into care was not sanctioned by her mother or by a family court judge.
Judge Lazarus said there should have been a “minimum period of delay” before care proceedings were started and a judge asked to make decisions.
The judge said the council had “failed to bring proper proceedings” in a “proper and timely way”.
She said the case betrayed “the most shocking misunderstanding of the law” by social work and legal teams at Medway Council.
That misunderstanding had been compounded by an “ignorant or arrogant disregard” of advice, she added.
Detail of the case has emerged in a ruling by the judge after a hearing in a family court in Chatham.
The judge said neither the girl nor her mother – who had claimed that their rights to respect for family life and a fair trial had been breached and asked for damages – could be identified.
“I have set out… the alarming history of the unlawful accommodation of (the girl) by Medway Council for over two years,” Judge Lazarus said in her ruling.
“Medway Council failed to bring proper proceedings in a proper and timely way, in breach of the respect that must be shown to (the girl’s) and her mother’s rights to family life and to (a) fair trial.”
She added: “What is betrayed is the most shocking misunderstanding of the law by both social work and legal teams at Medway Council, and of the proper limitations of their exercise of power over this family, compounded by an ignorant or arrogant disregard for the advice and recommendations being provided.”
Judge Lazarus said the council had been unable to explain the reason for errors.
She said the circumstances of the case were “very grave”.
The council had contested the claims, while making some concessions, and lawyers had argued the girl had been lawfully accommodated for part of the time she was in care.
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