Woman held for 30 hours after failing to produce son’s passport in care case

A 50-year-old woman whose son has been taken into local authority care was arrested and held in custody for 30 hours after failing to hand over his passport.

Social services bosses feared that Sarah Calver might track down the youngster, who is in foster care pending a family court judge’s ruling on his long-term future, and take him abroad.

They complained that Mrs Calver was in breach of a judge’s order to produce the boy’s passport – and her passport – and launched contempt of court proceedings.

She was arrested at her home near Lincoln and held by police pending a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court.

A High Court judge freed her late on Wednesday after a hearing in London.

Mr Justice Holman said it was not proportionate to continue holding Mrs Calver in custody.

Mrs Calver had given different explanations for not handing passports to authorities – first saying they could not be found, then saying they had expired.

The judge said Passport Office staff would carry out checks.

He told Mrs Calver the situation was “grave”, and warned her she might face further court action if council bosses thought that she had lied and continued to have concerns.

The judge said some people would go to “considerable lengths” to avoid care proceedings by abducting their children and taking them abroad, beyond the reach of British authorities.

He said it was of the utmost importance that in such situations passports were secured.

The case came in the week a former Liberal Democrat MP raised concerns about a rise in the number of babies being taken into local authority care in England.

John Hemming, who chairs the Justice for Families campaign group, said figures show a 132% increase over the past 20 years

He said an analysis of Government figures shows the number of babies being taken into care rose from 1,180 in 1995 to 2,740 last year.

Mr Hemming released a statistical analysis by Justice for Families after the most senior family court judge in England and Wales said he wanted to find better ways of handling cases involving the care of children.

Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division of the High Court, said last month that the number of care cases continued to rise ”seemingly relentlessly”.

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