Midland parents plan to take social services battle to Europe

Oct 3 2010 by Jonny Greatrex, Sunday Mercury

HEARTBROKEN parents who claim their children were ‘stolen’ by social services have launched a mass legal action to win them back.

The mums and dads claim their kids were unfairly taken into care after hearings at highly-secretive Family Courts.

Now a 500-strong group is taking a class action to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to claim their human rights have been breached by local authorities.

They claim the Family Courts system is unfair as it allows no right of appeal and relies too heavily on the opinions of individual experts or social workers. If international judges back the case, it could allow parents to bring criminal proceedings against councils – and reunite them with loved ones.

Stuart Jones (not his real name) is one of the Midland parents involved in the mass action. His three boys were taken into care after an anonymous tip-off to Nottingham City Council that they were at risk from ‘emotional harm’.