Welcome to another week.
Dino Nocivelli, a lawyer and partner at Leigh Day, a solicitors’ firm representing child abuse survivors and victims of abuse, has written a post on the firm’s website calling for criminal sentences to reflect the abuse of trust children and families experience when they are maltreated by social workers.
Families who have been abused, discriminated against and threatened by social workers have discussed the need for better criminal and civil penalties in recent years, to deal with the harm this behaviour causes and to ensure that the sector understands this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.
Additionally, child protection cases published by England’s judiciary about social workers deliberately lying to the courts to engineer the removal of children from fit and loving parents show that offending social workers rarely face disciplinary action or jail time and highlight the urgent need to reform this area.
Dino mentions a series of cases where children were abused by social workers and calls on councils to voluntarily provide apologies to survivors and offer them therapeutic and financial support.
His post is reproduced in full below, and can be accessed on Leigh Day’s blog here:
A social worker should become involved in a child’s life when a child is suffering or is at risk of suffering harm and dependent on the level of this harm a child may need to be taken into care to be looked after. This level of interference by the State into the life of a private individual is justified by the level of harm that is in place and the risk to a child’s life.
As in other areas of society however, wherever an adult has been given a position of trust and power, there is a risk that this position will be abused and sadly it is no different when it involves social workers.
The most recent case involving child abuse by a social worker is Inderjit Kumar who was a social worker in Coventry.
Kumar has recently been convicted of three counts of indecent assault and two counts of cruelty to a child, and has received a seven-year prison sentence. Setting aside the depravity of the actual assaults inflicted by Kumar, the fact that he abused his position of trust as a social worker when these children were so vulnerable and in need of care and support compounds the impact of the abuse on his victims.
Sadly, this is not an isolated event and below are some others who have abused children through their positions as social workers and recently been convicted of the same:
• Walsall – Moses Reid
• Nuneaton – Robert Simms, 24-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault
• Nottingham – Andris Logins, 20 year prison sentence for rape
• Nottingham – Myriam Bamkin, 2.5 year prison sentence for indecent assault
• Nottingham – Dean Gathercole, 19-year prison sentence for rape and indecent assault
• Cornwall – Chetin Hussyin, 14-year prison sentence for buggery and indecent assault
• Hereford – Michelle Baxter, 26 months for sex with someone in her care
• Worcester – David Corrick, 13 years for buggery and sexual assault
• Rochdale – James Peter Gavin, 17-year prison sentence for child abuse
It is important that that all survivors of abuse feel able to disclose their abuse and that social workers who abuse should receive an increased criminal punishment for abusing their position of trust.
I hope that councils will voluntarily step up to provide substantive apologies to the survivors and to also offer therapeutic and financial support although from my experience this does not happen. Instead it is left to survivors to try and deal with the impact of the abuse and also of the council’s failings.
Researching Reform 
You say,
“It is important that that all survivors of abuse feel ABLE TO DISCLOSE THEIR ABUSE and that social workers who abuse should receive an increased criminal punishment for abusing their position of trust. ”
I agree 100% but wish there was more emphasis on ability to disclose ! At present parents and children in care are FORBIDDEN to discuss or even mention abuse suffered at the hands of fosterers,carers or social workers.
Parents have to signa so called “contract” agreeing to these restrictions otherwise they cannot see their children at all !
Any complaint of that nature results in contact being stopped immediately and often for good !
Once again “free speech” is the essential key so that is what we should campaign for.
It is no good deploring a situation if you have no solutions to propose.
Free speech for parents and their children in care ! Freedom to reveal abuse in care and to complain about decisions in the family courts
giving details of the procedures…………
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my partner has been discriminated by our social worker [edited] from huntingdon. accused of something he never done. she also tooken my children on future harm there is no evidence of this at all and also she has lied in the courts and got away with this I would like some help in what steps I can take against her she has caused mental emotional upset to my self and all our children. one of my children were so badly hurt with a carer soon as she got bk from leave she moved him. she has done alot wrong in her job. and the local authority have even breached our human rights . how can they all get away with this.
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They get away with it because the police usually turn a blind eye when complaints are made. SWs are like Teflon Dons. nothing sticks.
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“child protection cases published by England’s judiciary about social workers deliberately lying to the courts to engineer the removal of children from loving parents show that offending social workers rarely face disciplinary action or jail time and highlight the urgent need to reform this area.”
This is why SWs break the law on a daily basis because they know you will get nothing done about them via complaints to the council or the police. they are well protected. even by the inhouse council legal team.
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Here here. However, sadly local authorities have a policy never to apologize as doing so would enable civil claims to be made against them – as it stands this is almost impossible as claimants may have to pay the other sides legal fees if they lose – and local authorities legal fees are unlimited.
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This is long overdue. It’s not just social workers but the judiciary too. It’s time they are held accountable.
To my mind, it’s criminal for social workers to give false information about family members to achieve the outcome they want, to remove a child/children from the parents but also to prevent grandparents from looking after them when parent can’t.
When a social worker was actually found to be lying in court, to give a false impression of the father, the judge excused the Social Worker as being under pressure. The counter claim came from a worker at a children’s centre but there may have been a different impression given if it stood.
The same judge didn’t reprimand her for the false reports she wrote, about all members of the family, the worst was when she claimed the grandfather was a convicted paedophile. I presume she added someone else’s history in her cut & paste report. For the record the grandfather has never been arrested nor convicted for anything.
Then when the judge in court proceedings tells the social workers to supply requested paperwork to family members but they fail to do so, why are they not taken to task? If this scenario were reversed I’m sure the judge would have found his voice & it would reflect badly on the family.
When the judge tells the barrister/social workers what they must do after proceedings & they ignore the judge there is no recourse & there are no penalties for the social worker who fails to carry out instructions.
The judiciary appears to collude with social workers. If claims are made against family they should at least be true. The stakes are high for them, they lose their children.
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Its interesting you mention false information against the grandfather.
My father was also falsely accused of assaulting the carer during a contact session. he was 78 at the time and has never been accused or convicted of anything in his life. it was obviously a setup between the carer and the S/worker to stop my father seeing his grandson. it worked and they got away with it. my father has not seen his two grandsons since April 2015.
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This happened to a mother. The mother had a meeting with the prospective “special guardians”. In attendance at all times was a social worker. In court the prospective “special guardians” claimed the mother was aggressive towards them whilst in the meeting. The social worker however denied this & stated the mother was in fact perfectly agreeable. It was the decision of the Special Guardians to decide if the mother would be able to see her children. Since the mother had hoped that she would be allowed to see her children she wouldn’t have jeopardised that. However once voiced it plants a seed. It adds insult to injury.
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The social worker also lied about family members in my case in order to claim the SGO reports were ‘negative’ Anyone would think there was a profit motive behind adoption – (putting a child with non-related total strangers who don’t love them) – otherwise surely placing children with people who they know and love and who know and love them too, would be in those famous ‘best interests’.
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Anyone would “think’ there was a profit motive?
Nearly everyone KNOWS there is a profit motive behind adoption!Millions of £s are made every year by fostering and adoption agencies and some of thos profits have been known to trickle down by way of commissions to all sorts of low life………..
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I have always strongly suspected that the corruption is fueled by the Inter-agency adoption fees paid to councils for adopting children, starting at approx £32’000 for one child rising to £80’000 for 5 siblings together.
if that isnt where the criminal activity is coming from then i’ll be very surprised.
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