Three sisters whose parents did not give them names are taken into care

Three sisters whose parents did not give them names have been taken into care following family court hearings.

The eldest girl has been adopted and the younger girls placed for adoption.

Detail has emerged in a judge’s ruling published on a legal website.

Judge Sarah Lynch said she had been asked to make decisions about the youngest child – a baby now aged four months – at a family court hearing in Leeds in November.

She said she had made decisions about the older girls at earlier hearings.

The judge did not identify the family involved but said social services staff at Leeds City Council had asked for rulings.

Judge Lynch indicated that the lack of names had not been the key factor in her thinking.

She said she had concluded that the children would not be safe in their parents’ care.

Social workers had said there was evidence that the youngest child was at risk of “sexual and emotional” harm at home.

The judge said the baby’s birth had been registered just by her surname.

She indicated that social workers had given her a first name for “day-to-day” use.

A more senior family court judge has said that not giving a child a name is “emotionally harmful”.

Mrs Justice Parker – who is based in the Family Division of the High Court – outlined her thoughts in 2014 when making decisions about the future of a baby boy whose parents had not given him a first name.

“Every child needs a name,” she said – after a family court hearing in Watford, Hertfordshire.

“I truly think that it is emotionally harmful not to give a child a name.”

Mrs Justice Parker – whose forenames are Judith Mary Frances – concluded that the little boy should be placed for adoption.

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