It is a bit of an old story but probably the nastiest of this year.
In May,two senior judges strongly criticised East Sussex local authority for forcing through an adoption of a baby girl against the wishes of her father.
The story covered in The Times (link) highlighted how the council adopted "by means more foul than fair" in a case where a father who was unaware that he had a daughter until the council contacted him, wanted to take custody. This was because the mother had abandoned the child and she was placed into care.
When he contacted the council they then ignored him on purpose and he ended up losing his attempt at custody because the child had now been adopted. The judges condemned the council for its disgraceful conduct and that the council deliberately set out to prevent the father's case being heard.
In response, and despite the judges damning verdict , the councils' weasly response was "We are pleased the court confirmed that we were legally entitled to do what we did."
What the social services department of East Sussex did is frankly disgusting and it shows how some people in local authorities are hellbent on ignoring fathers, even to the point of subterfuge.
Supposedly the state is there to serve the people but clearly here, they were not interested at all. No-one will have lost their jobs at the council for this terrible terrible behaviour.
I just hope the people involved can sleep at night, though I suspect they don't care one way or other.
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