A pregnant woman was sedated against her will and her baby removed by caesarean section and taken into care after instructions from social services, it has been claimed.
Social workers went to the High Court to get a court order which allowed them to take the child from the mother's womb, according to reports. The Italian woman, who already has two children, was visiting Britain to attend a Ryanair hostess training course at Stansted Airport in Essex when she suffered a panic attack.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered from a bipolar condition but had failed to take her medication. Despite speaking to the woman's mother in Italy on the telephone, who explained the mental health problems, police took her to a psychiatric hospital. John Hemming will take up the woman's case in Parliament. She was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and five weeks later she was sedated – despite her protests – and her child removed and taken in to care, The Sunday Telegraph has disclosed. The woman was then sent back to Italy without her daughter, who is now 15 months old and the centre of an international legal wrangle.
In February the woman, who is back on her medication, returned to Britain seeking the return of her daughter but was told by a judge at Chelmsford Crown Court that her child would instead be put up for adoption, the paper says. Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming has taken up her case and told Sky News he plans to raise the matter in Parliament.Mr Hemming, who is the chairman of the Public Family Law Reform Coordinating Campaign, said: "She wanted to go back to Italy to have her child naturally."If somebody is a bit ill and then they are sectioned then that does not make them better. There was a situation where obviously the thing to have done was to get this woman back to Italy and stabilise her."I cannot see why it would have been that difficult to get her back to her family and her two children. "The High Court in Rome has questioned why British law has been applied to an Italian citizen.
The woman, who is amicably divorced from her husband, is continuing her battle to get her daughter returned either to her or into the care of her friends or relatives.Her lawyer in Britain, Brendan Flemming, told The Sunday Telegraph, which has seen court documents ordering the caesarean section: "I have never heard of anything like this in all my 40 years in the job."I can understand if someone is very ill that they may not be able to consent to a medical procedure but a forced caesarean is unprecedented. "Questions are being raised as to why the woman's relatives in Italy, who were caring for her other two children while she was detained, were not consulted about the matter.
The courts have argued that they have jurisdiction over the case because the woman did not protest at the time.In addition the judge ruled her child should not be returned to her in case she fails to take her medication again. Essex County Council told Sky News in a statement: "Essex County Council does not comment on the circumstances of on-going individual cases involving vulnerable people and children."
(Source: skynews)
