A Birmingham MP is urging parents suspected of child abuse to flee the country rather than face justice in the Family Courts “because you can’t rely on the evidence being fair”.
Yardley Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who is chairman of the Justice for Families campaign group, said he has been contacted by hundreds of parents who claim they have been unfairly targeted by social services.
He tells Panorama that he believes parents cannot expect a fair hearing when the Family Courts decide whether their children should be taken into care.
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“All the cards are held by the local authority. It has large resources to fight the cases, it does all the assessments,” he said.
“My advice to people if they can afford it is just to go abroad.
"You can’t get a fair trial here, because you can’t rely on the evidence being fair.
"It’s best simply to go if you can, at the right time, lawfully.”
says that last year local authorities made a record 10,000 applications to take children away from their parents and into care, leading to claims that social workers may be overreacting in the wake of cases such as that of Baby P.
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But the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), which looks after the interests of children in family proceedings, said more youngsters are being protected.
“We can’t play poker with children’s safety, we’ve got to have a system that plays it safe to begin with,” chief executive Anthony Douglas said.
- Panorama's "I Want My Baby Back" is screened at 9pm on BBC1 on Monday, January 13