The 'River Kwai' syndrome can be found everywhere in our society involving people who shut out common sense in favour of the rule book and never is that more true than when it comes to children.
We have had another case highlighted in the newspapers today where the mighty wheels of officialdom took two children away from their parents for nearly a YEAR because some dumb officials in Leeds 'followed the rule book' on child abuse. It transpired that no abuse had taken place whatsoever and two small children were deprived of their parents love and attention for no valid reason. It will take a long time for those kids to get over that.
The situation began, apparently, when a 10 year old girl was taken to hospital by her mother after a small amount of blood was discovered in her underwear. This occurred a number of times and the child was subjected to EIGHT vaginal and anal examinations which proved nothing. Despite this, social services took her and her eleven year old brother away from the parental home for eleven months. During this time the little girl proclaimed adamantly that no one had ever laid a finger on her but it seems that in the current climate of child abuse obsession, we believe children only when they say they HAVE been molested. And if they don't say it, we get experts to show them pictures, drawings and dollies with their private parts marked so that the kids end up believing they must have been abused.
If you think thats an exaggeration read what happened to the children in Cleveland many years ago, when 121 kids were taken from their homes in midnight raids because of the misjudgments of two paediatricians in a Middlesbrough hospital.
Surely when tests have proved inconclusive and the child herself proclaims adamantly that she has suffered no abuse, don't you at least give the family the benefit of the doubt. Oh no, social services will say, because the child could have been coerced to protect its parents...and anyway, there is so much abuse rampant in our society that we couldn't take that chance!
Fortunately for the parents of the two children , a new guideline on sexual abuse has just been published by the Royal College of Paediatrics, and, after reading it, some of the doctors who had confidently, it seems advised that sexual abuse had occurred, withdrew their recommendations plus the parents obtained the expertise of an American consultant in the field. It would appear, following her assessment, that it is likely that the child was suffering a form of eczema which occasionally bled.
But no one knows for certain. There was no trace of semen or any factor which could prove sexual interference nor any definite proof of eczema. But what horrifies me is that the word of the little girl that she was happy and safe at home seems to have been completely ignored. Officialdom in Britain today would rather sacrifice the happiness and sense of well being of two small children, rather than risk leaving them with parents when there is even a minimal chance of child abuse.
Surely this is child protection gone completely barmy and once the child abuse ball begins to roll there appears to be no stopping it. Sometimes people in responsible jobs have to take a deep breath and weigh up options as to which will cause the most distress to all concerned. That doesn't seem to happen. They read the rule book, go through the procedures, and a child can plead for ever that she has fond, loving parents and it won't matter a damn. You see I'm not even sure if the child's welfare was paramount here. I think it was the welfare of the inexperienced medics and the Leeds social services who were watching their collective arses. Risk believing a child? More than me jobs worth, mate!!!
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