Pregnant woman flees social workers

November 10, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

www.timesonline.co.uk

A seven-months pregnant woman with a learning disability is reported to have fled Scotland because she fears her baby will be taken away from her when it is born.

Kerry Robertson, 17, and her fiancé are understood to have gone abroad, claiming that “bullying” officialdom had prevented their marriage and then threatened to remove their baby from them.

Ms Robertson, who comes from Dunfermline, Fife, claims she was told by social workers from Fife Council that she will be unable to keep her baby when it is born in January. She is also in dispute with the council over its ruling in September that her wedding to Mark McDougall, 25, could not go ahead on grounds of her capacity.

Fife Council, for its part, said that no decision had been made on the baby’s future and would not be made until after the child had been born. The priority, it said, was both the mother and child.

The high-profile case highlights the dilemma facing social workers who must both protect the welfare of babies and vulnerable adults with disability, but at the same time protect the rights of those adults to lead fulfilled lives.

Mr McDougall told a newspaper that he and his fiancée decided to leave Scotland after they saw the minutes of a meeting in which social workers claimed their child could suffer emotional harm if left with Miss Robertson.

They left Dunfermline last Thursday night with two suitcases of belongings and £200 in cash and travelled to an unnamed country. Ms Robertson told a newspaper: “We want to wed here as soon as possible and give our son a stable, loving home. we won’t be going back to Scotland until he is at least two.

“We will show the social workers — and the world — we are responsible parents and that our son is safe with us. That’s all we want, just to live as a normal family with our baby boy. But we’ve been forced to go to these lengths to have any hope of achieving it.”

Care experts say it is almost unheard of for anyone to be prevented from getting married, although such a measure can be taken if someone is still in the care of the local authority, or suffers from incapacity to the point where they cannot make an informed choice. It is not known whether Ms Robertson is in this situation.
Read more…