Judge to rule on vulnerable woman who has had four children removed from her care
A woman with mental health difficulties who has had four children taken from her care has a pattern of becoming pregnant, a family court judge said.
Judge Elizabeth Williscroft says council social services bosses asked her to rule that two of the woman’s children should be taken into care in 2017.
She says by the time she made that ruling the woman was pregnant again – with twins.
The judge said that in late 2018 she ruled that those twins should also be placed for adoption.
By the time she made that decision the woman was pregnant yet again.
Details of the case emerged in a written ruling in which Judge Williscroft outlined her reasons for concluding that the twins had to be placed for adoption.
She indicated in the ruling, recently published, that she had analysed the case involving the twins at a private family court hearing in Stoke-on-Trent, late last year.
The judge said she could not see any alternative to adoption and that the woman had a “complex mental health presentation” and an “inability” to care for children.
“By the time the last court case ended (the woman) was again pregnant and this pattern has continued,” said the judge.
“I cannot see any alternative to adoption.”
Judge Williscroft said neither the woman nor the children could be identified in media reports.
She added that social services bosses at Stoke-on-Trent City Council had welfare responsibility for the twins and asked for decisions to be made about their future care.
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