I have two children in care. A daughter who is 22 months old and a 4 year old son. They became subject to a child protection order on the 31st July 2013, and were taken from home that very day.
From the PLO meeting until the Child Protection Order there was a month and half to change my entire world. I dont know about you, but that is never enough time to do all the changes that social services ask you to do.
Social service tried to accuse my partner of beating me, although he has never touched me and i’ve never had any bruises which have been caused through him harming me. They also accused both myself and my partner of physically and emotionally harming both children. If any of the accusations were true then why has there been no investigation or charges bought forward, surely it would be a criminal matter?
My son and daughter were both well looked after. They were dressed in appropriate clothing, fed 3 healthy meals a day, (my Daughter was breastfed and bottle fed until she was taken). my son was aloud snacks whenever he was hungry during the day, which usually consisted of fruit or raw vegetables along with hummus. They both were watered and always had a cup or bottle of water or some other form of drink nearby. They were both bathed and washed daily. My son was aloud to get dirty and muddy, we had a very active outdoorsy lifestyle. They were always washed after the activities though. I was the one that stayed up day and night looking after them if they were ill. Doing all i could to make them feel better. Most importantly they were loved dearly by all who knew them and they always had a smile on there face.
When ever in need of a medical professional, they were both taken to one. My son went to nursery three times a week and we also done ‘homework’ every night for half hour. MY daughter was too young to go to nursery but was developing well.
I may have not been the best mum, i certainly could of done things differently, but i couldn’t and wouldn’t ever harm them in any way.
From the start of this case nothing has made sense.i felt they were trying to tar me with the same brush as my mother, as i ended up in care. The fact i rarely drink and the only drugs i take are prescribed ones and occasionally I will smoke cannabis to help with my pain symptoms. I have never used recreational drugs in front of, or around my children. I keep all evidence out of sight from my children. My use of cannabis has never affected the way i look after my children and i only ever get it once my children have everything they need and want.
Both myself and my partner accept our attitude towards Social services was unacceptable and we have both tried to change our ways since. I am not trying to make excuses, but how would you like random judgmental people coming into your home and ripping your family and world apart. How would you feel if allegations, no not allegations but rumors keep being thrown at you. I say rumors not allegations because allegations have to have some form of factual proof where as rumors are just made up stories.
I believe this case has been manipulated and twisted so that there was never any chance of us getting the children back. The assessments that were done, had our words used and twisted against us, we felt like pawns in a game of chess. It was if they didn’t care who they hurt or what happened, all they cared about was meeting numbers and targets. Anything to get there paycheck.
No one gave us a chance. We didn’t see the point in appealing the courts as we didn’t see a chance to get our kids back.
Ever since our kids were taken into care, they have been knocked from pillar to post.
The first incident occurred September/October time 2013. We were nearing the end of a contact visit at Well’s children center, it was myself, my partner , my daughter and son with one male contact worker. I had asked Logan to start tidying away his toys, at which he responded by running into the adjoining room. As i followed him he proceeded to curl up into a ball and started saying whilst half crying ‘ Please don’t beat me, don’t beat me.’ now not in the three years of his life have i ever heard him talk or sound like he did then, he sounded really terrified. I made sure the contact supervisor had heard what had been said. He assured me he had heard every word, and would inform social of this. Now whilst i was dealing with that in the other room, my partner had returned from changing my daughters bottom and started playing with her on the floor again, so with in this whole 5-10 minutes of this happening he had not seen nor spoken to my son.
After our contact had ended i proceeded to phone social services, on our way home from the contact center. I told them what had happened and been said, and they proceeded to tell me that they would need to speak with the contact worker to hear his side of events, but after that nothing more would be looked into. I believed the social worker did not appreciate the severity of the events that had taken place.
Due to feelìng like i was the one who had hurt my son i rang the police and explained what had happened and been said, both during the contact session and between myself and social services.The police stated they would look into it and they would contact social for the address of the foster carer to check everything was okay with both children. I left it at that for the time being. From what we were told in court, the police never arrived at the foster placement until 10 pm that night, which included waking both children. Unfortunately due to the police turning up at 10 pm the carer no longer wanted the children and the placement broke down. Social services tried to blame the police’s tardiness on my partner, even though I rung the police at 13:36 and it was also i who rung them. From this point on wards my partner was no longer allowed to see my son. We never understood or got told the reasons why, this broke my partners and sons heart, my son started shutting himself off and became down, whilst my partner became depressed.
Once the children moved to Julies, they seemed to do a lot better, and started smiling again. My son always told me he loved and missed both mummy and daddy but was happy he had mummy Julie too. Everything was going great in contact sessions.
It wasn’t until he came to contact looking battered and bruised, when i asked Logan how he got them he shut down immediately, I even tried to explain to him that i wasn’t angry or upset i just wanted to make sure he was okay and wasn’t getting hurt at Julies house. In the weeks that followed my son became withdrawn and seemed depressed, he no longer wanted to leave mummy. something was obviously going on behind closed doors. To no avail, after my contact session i phoned social services, at first i received no correspondence so i phoned the police and explained to them what my came to contact like. No one really seemed interested. After phoning social once again they told me they’d contact Julie. Within the next few weeks i received several different explanations. A) He fell off of the slide. B) He Fell out of his push along car. C) It was my fault and he done it at contact. D) He fell down the stairs from the second step from the top. E) He fell down the stairs a couple of steps from the bottom. My son despite his injuries was not taken to hospital, and if he had fallen down the stairs, whether it be the full stair case or just a couple of steps, why wasn’t he checked out. Surely you cannot tell me this is right?
I tried contacting everyone i could in relation to this, including members of the house of Lords, but it seemed no one wanted to know. My son was in harms way and i could not do anything about it.
In April it was deemed that i was an unfit mother and they should be adopted. In May I had my Last contact session with them and lost them for what i thought was to be for good.
I was told i had two weeks of contact left and then that would be it. I was also told they would be placed into there new placement within two weeks after my final contact session.
My son and I have always had a great relationship, he’d always tell me everything and never had secrets. In our final contact session i asked him ( with a brave face) If he had seen pictures of his new mummy and daddy, I had spoken a lot about this day coming and the fact mummy could no longer look after him previously, so he was not shocked when i asked him questions. I was also told that this had happened so I knew i wouldn’t be jumping into a blank space. my son told me he had and started excitedly describing them and told me there very smiley/ happy people. I chatted to him some more about them and was explaining things to him in a way i thought he would understand. By the end of the contact he was looking forward to meeting is new mummy and daddy. I gave them both one final kiss goodbye and huggles and off they went.
A month later i was told that the new parents have been accepted and the children would be meeting them soon, shown pictures and be moving within the next two weeks. I was confused, i thought they already had moved in. I felt like i was going mad, having the same conversation, with the same person twice. I argued with Lea Jones about this fact and that she had either previously lied or is now lying. How are you meant to trust some one, who has your children’s lives in their hands, but has lied point blankly to you. I couldn’t do anything about it so i left it at that.
On the 6th of September i received a letter stating that social services have some information that they needed to speak to us about.
On the 8th of September I learned that my 17 month old daughter had been hospitalized due to an unexplained injury. And the ‘new’ parents are being investigated.
On the 10th of September i went for a face to face appointment with my partners grandparents at the mendip district council office. Within that meeting i learned that my daughter had been sexually abused. She had been rushed to Bristol Children’s hospital in order to get her into surgery as quickly as possible. She had been torn from her vaginal cavity to her anal cavity. I have read the strategy discussions and medical report from the surgeon and all of it consists with penetration from an adult. Whilst my daughter was in hospital my son got put with strangers, which had been 5 minute CRB checked.
Once again the system failed them. Once my daughter came out of hospital both her and Logan were placed back at Julies, (the previous foster placement). To begin with my daughter found it hard to settle and my son didn’t like anyone going near his bottom and was showing other signs of sexualized behavior.
Thankfully now a few months down the line there both doing a lot better. According to social services, anyhow, how am i supposed to trust these people to make sure my son and daughter don’t enter harms way again? They need to be back with their mummy and daddy who not only have learned a lot from this experience but are stronger than ever. We can make sure they are protected, supported, loved, nurtured and nourished. They have a huge family who is missing them greatly. We have so much support and love around us to make sure we get it right this time.
I have also just learnt that there isn’t enough evidence to pinpoint one person so the case is closed and the sick person who raped my daughter will get away with it.
I really need your help to get my children back where they belong. Where they are safe. Can you honestly deny two innocent children of their family and a happy childhood. By all means keep an eye on us and even assess us every 6 months. But help us, don’t go against us.
Please accept my humble gratitude and gratefulness of yourselves spending the time and resources in reading this letter. You will never understand how grateful i am.
MANY MANY MANY THANKS
Jasmine Moncaster
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