Youngsters taken away from mother with history of child sex assault, says judge

Three children whose mother has a history of child sex assault have been taken into care, a family court judge has said.

The woman’s first child was placed with adopters in 2014, a second was removed from her care at birth in 2017, and a third removed in late 2018, Deputy High Court Judge William Tyler said.

She had twice been cautioned by police more than a decade ago, before becoming a parent, the judge said.

Judge Tyler said that at one stage the woman had worked at a children’s nursery, less than a year after being cautioned for hitting a child she was babysitting.

Detail of the case has been outlined in a ruling published by Judge Tyler following the latest in a series of private family court hearings.

The judge, who is based in London, said the woman, who is now in her 30s, could not be identified in media reports of the case.

He said that, in June 2005, she was cautioned after admitting assaulting a child she was babysitting.

In March 2006, she was cautioned for sexually assaulting a boy and girl while working at a nursery.

Social workers raised concerns months after the woman’s first child was born in 2013.

That child was placed with adopters in 2014.

In 2017, the woman and her partner, who were then living in the North of England, moved to Ireland when she was five months pregnant with her second child.

Judge Tyler said they had tried to put that unborn baby “beyond the reach” of the English family justice system.

Social workers in Ireland became involved and that child had been removed from the woman at birth and placed into foster care.

Litigation had begun in England and Ireland and judges said decisions about that child’s future should be taken in England.

Judge Tyler has now concluded that the second child should stay with foster carers, under a special guardianship order, in the long term.

The woman subsequently became pregnant again and her third child was removed from her care late in 2018 and placed with foster carers pending long-term decisions, said the judge.

Judge Tyler said the woman had endured an “extremely difficult and traumatic life”.

She had suffered “significant” abuse and neglect as a child and been taken from her mother’s care when she was two.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Pixabay.