I, like many others have been following the case of the 72yr old grandmother who has just been released from custody after being arrested for contempt of court.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/dec/31/woman-jailed-hugging-granddaughter-court-freed-birmingham
Don’t think this is an isolated case, it isn’t.
Cases such as this are going on all over the UK all the time.
Child protection is of course paramount.
To say that contact with a grandparent is ‘detrimental to a child’s health,’ is used constantly, but rarely the reason why it is detrimental.
Surely it is detrimental to a child to be alienated from a parent/grandparent, is that not emotional abuse? Of course it is.
If you had been told you could not have any contact with your grandchild and you saw them in the street and they ran up to you for a hug, would you ignore them, would you just walk away? If your grandchild phoned you would you just put the phone down? This is reality, this is what grandparents are told they must do.
It is emotional abuse.
I was brought up to respect people in authority, the police and the legal system, but could I bring up the next generation teaching them that same respect?
The public have lost trust in our legal system, those millions involved in miscarriages of justice or false allegations will never trust it again.
Can you blame them?
How can you teach children to respect the law, when those working in the legal system don’t respect them and their voices?
This particular case, has gone through the courts in a very public way, which enable us to write and discuss it, there are thousands who are bound by family court secrecy, who are not allowed to tell their stories.
Parents and grandparents who just want to love their children and grandchildren, not harm them, just to have some part in their lives.
This grandmother was taken by police officers, whilst watching Ken Dodds show in Liverpool and jailed for 3 days, in court she was taken in by 4 security officers in hand-cuffs, that is an utter disgrace.
She is says when asked, that she wasn’t afraid, others are not so strong. Grandparents who have had similar experiences never, ever get over it.
One question that has been gnawing away at me is this.
When a resident parent breaks a contact order, is that not also contempt of court?
How many of these cases are dealt with in the same way, the parent arrested and taken to police cells for days, escorted by security officers in hand-cuffs to court?
I await evidence of such cases.
It is no longer enough for MP’s, to say that they absolutely agree that this sort of thing is totally unacceptable, they have to DO something about it.
Jane