Following the guilty verdict in the Vanessa George trial earlier this week, Ed Balls told the BBC that ‘this kind of abuse’ represented ‘a deeply distressing and disturbing case’.

But ‘this kind of abuse’ is not only more widespread and endemic than he appears to understand…..it is also only one (paedophiliac) form of it.

Children from problem homes – and their mothers – have been abused in various ways for years by the secret Family Courts system designed to help with their problems. Since 2001, the system has been the responsibility of Cafcass, a quango answerable directly to…….Minister for Children Ed Balls.

Abuse No 1: their human rights. Mothers entering the system now (themselves previously victims of care-home sexual abuse as children) find themselves diagnosed with ‘syndromes’ which have little or no psychiatric validity, and are sent for ‘remedial treatment’ – with little or no form of redress or appeal. The Minister for Women is….Harriet Harman.

In 2006 she told the Commons:

“The idea that people are sent to prison without any reports of the proceedings makes even more important the work that we are undertaking with the family courts, and with the important intervention of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, to open them up so that they act in the public interest while maintaining personal privacy.”

In April 2009, the Government allowed media ‘access’ to the Secret Courts – but effectively neutered it by insisting that:

“In the interests of children, for the safety and protection of parties or witnesses (or persons connected with them), for the orderly conduct of proceedings, or where justice would otherwise be prejudiced, the court will have the power to restrict the attendance of the media.” (Our emphasis)

This is merely gesture government. The campaign site MothersforJustice is linked to nby and waits impatiently for this cancer at the very heart of our legal system to be removed….without anything tangible three long years on.

Abuse No 2: sexual abuse. Both the problem mothers and their children have been put into separate ‘care’ centres, and then abused sexually following their ‘diagnosis’ with psychiatric illnesses.

M4J and the various victim support organisations in the UK are snowed under dealing with the many cases involved. One such is Barbara Richards – herself a victim of the pin-down scandal many years ago (See below) . On the basis of what many now believe to be a bogus theory, Barbara Richards was placed against her will in an institution where she had already been sexually abused as a child. The ‘theory’ concerned is Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). Ms Richards told us:

“PAS is a trumped-up excuse, the brainchild of a long-discredited US psychiatrist”.

She appears to have a point. Dr. Paul J. Fink, a past President of the APA and President of the Leadership Council on Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, states categorically that:

“PAS as a scientific theory has been excoriated by legitimate researchers across the nation. Judged solely on its merits, Dr. Gardner should be a pathetic footnote of psychiatry, or an example of poor scientific standards…. Gardner and his bogus theory have done untold damage to sexually and physically abused children and their protective parents.”

This is because paedophiles can position themselves as ’safe alternatives’ to mothers diagnosed with PAS. US attorney Richard Ducote goes further: “Parental Alienation Syndrome is a bogus, pro-paedophiliac fraud concocted by Richard Gardner”.

Abuse No 3: physical abuse. Despite the appalling Staffordshire ‘pin-down’ scandal of seven years ago (as a result of which 11 year-old Gareth Myatt died) casual and gratuitous physical restraint continues. After the tragic Myatt case, in 2006 popular Labour MP Sally Keeble made a Parliamentary fuss about it, pointing out how Court secrecy underpins and protects the abusers.

Three years on, the Government says it will further

“….revise the law on reporting restrictions as soon as parliamentary time allows”.

The two Ministers responsible for making this happen are…..Harriet Harman and Ed Balls.

These were Mr Balls’ exact words following this week’s Vanessa George trial:

“This is a deeply distressing and disturbing case. It is vital we find out how an adult could abuse their position of trust in such an evil way, and we must do everything we can to prevent this kind of abuse happening in the future”.

There’s that ‘everything we can’ mantra again. But on the ground, the reality in this case is ‘nothing’.

Perhaps if Ed spent less time Tweeting, and smearing sites like nby as “the ultra-Right spreading groundless rumours”, he might get around to it. As for Ms Harman – well, as you can read elsewhere, she and her Insignificant Other Jack Dromey are busy building up a war-chest with which to fight for the post-Brown Labour leadership. She may be an active Minister for Women, but she’s not doing one helluvalot for Mothers.

2009 John Ward.

Tagged as: Care Home Abuse, Ed Balls, Harriet Harman, Mothers for Justice, Vanessa George