In March 2014 the Pedros accompanied me to present the petition and were arrested by Lincoln Police for ‘belonging to the Forced Adoption campaigning group’.
Former MP John Hemming complained about it in Parliament with this Early Day Motion.
On 11 November 2014, I mentioned in Brussels how the Pedros were arrested for belonging to a ‘forced adoption’ campaign group:
On 17 November 2014, Carla Pedro Jorge met with her County Councillor at Lincolnshire County Council. This County Councillor is a Member of the Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Committee.
The meeting went very well, prior to the meeting the County Councillor had already sent an email to the Head of Social Services at Lincolnshire CC as well as speaking to her about Carla’s case.
The County Councillor asked Carla why all 5 of her children were taken when the problem was caused only by her eldest child and there were no problems with the other children.
The County Councillor is going to try to do everything to help Carla – she is going to send letters to all who have been involved with her case, including the legal team at Lincolnshire CC.
The County Councillor is going to have an urgent meeting about Carla’s children’s case with the case Social Workers, their manager, the legal team and the Head of Social Services.
In the opinion of the County Councillor, Carla’s eldest son should stay in care until he calms down and she will do everything to get her 4 other children returned to Carla. She said that what Social Services have done is completely barbaric as the only child that they needed to be removed was Carla’s eldest as his behaviour is not at all good.
The County Councillor said she will talk with Social Worker Rosemary Stanton because of the allegation that she made against Carla and her ex-husband, Jose, which led to their arrests; she is going to ask why Carla has not seen her 2 youngest children for three months.
The County Councillor said that she is going to do all in her power to get Lincolnshire County Council to reach an agreement with Carla to get the children back home under a Supervision Order.
The County Councillor said that what has been done is against the law and that she is going to help her wherever possible. Carla showed her the screen shots that she has as proof. The County Councillor told Carla not to worry and that she will probably be contacted about the joint meeting. The County Councillor is going to keep in touch with Carla.
Meanwhile, the father lost his job – again – due to the interference by Lincolnshire arms reaching all the way to London…
the procedures for organising contact with the children;
the procedures for reuniting the family;
the legitimisation for having care of the children;
the duty of care to safeguard the children.
The Council responds:
your claim is without merit;
your challenges are misconceived;
conditions of contact are inarguable.
For
we know from Mr R d S that you planned to abduct your five children [the Police charge said 3 of theirs plus somebody else’s];
he was previously involved in an abduction;
you have links with him;
you also have links with a ‘campaigning group’ against forced adoption whose policy is advising abduction;
your commitment to return to the children to Portugal is known.
In summary, as my late husband used to say: criminals try to get away with anything! So far they have succeeded! But as the internet comes to the rescue: Continue reading →
Once again, you can’t make it up what Social Services invent and fantasise about, and what Police do on their behalf – or a private ‘private security firm’ next! The privatisation of the ‘child processing industry’ is clearly in full swing already. No wonder MPs can’t and don’t want to help…
On Wednesday last week, Social Worker Graham was unable to schedule contact sessions, as he had to find time in the diary of Social Worker Malcolm Rebello to come from Lincoln to Grantham – on the phone – without letting the Pedros speak to him. After all, their case was closed in Grantham!
Today, Malcolm Rebello was unable to schedule contact sessions, as he claims he needs to have meetings with the respective contact centre!
About the two youngest children, who according to the oldest son were moved away from their sister, he said:
they have been moved for fear of being ABDUCTED by the parents;
they are up for adoption again, because the Portuguese authorities have not stepped in, supposedly.
Logic of course doesn’t count. For the Pedros were accused of abducting THREE of their children, i.e. presumably NOT the two youngest who are up for adoption – plus somebody else’s!…
But the fact that they separate the siblings doesn’t concern them either – even though it’s against all guidelines.
They will receive the ‘conditions for contact’ in Portuguese next:
they will get a phone call 1 to 2 hours before the event;
they shall be searched before contact;
they are to hand over their mobile phones and their ID;
they shall travel in the security vehicle of a ‘private security firm’;
their contact will be monitored and they have to sign the agreement.
If they breach the agreement, contact will be terminated.
In the eyes of Social Services she has committed a crime – – despite charges having been dropped!!!
Human rights article 8, the right to family life?
UN Child Rights?
How do you fight the WAR of getting the family re-united, when one battle after another is put between them and their children???
The Pedro children were not heard either when the same Force removed them from their home on 23 April 2013. Later, their oldest son was not heard either:
he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD] and thus finds it amusing to invent anything any time – just as the Musa daughter seemed to delight in talking about abuse that clearly never had happened; children don’t separate between imagination and reality, do they?
Hence I asked Carla to say it in Portuguese – recorded in broadcast quality – not only about the suffering and injustice of her own family but all other parents, as she has over 3,000 friends on her Facebook page…
Police Drop Charges against Portuguese Parents Fighting for the Return of their Children
This is the title of an article in the Algarve Resident. It encapsulates the day’s achievements and challenges in Grantham: two bail hearings of Jose and Carla Pedro were replaced by a “Released without Charge” form with a ticked box: “There is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”
This admission by Lincoln Police is the result of a ‘Letter before Claim’ that the Pedros issued with the assistance of McKenzie Friends. However, the Police lawyer pointed out that the ‘children issue’ concerns Lincoln Council rather than the Police – even though they were the ones who removed the five children from their home and against their will on 23 April 2013.
Hence the Council’s response to the Letter before Claim is of great concern, as it says “Further work and discussions are required before the Council will be able to confirm their position in this regard. It is also important to understand that should a decision be made that the children should be returned to Portugal under an agreed plan, the Portuguese Government have confirmed that they have no intention to return the children to your care or that of your extended family.”Continue reading →
Truth is stranger than fiction, once again. And even though I had heard about the Pedros’ experiences on 23 April 2013 before, they sank in with fresh power, as we visited Grantham Police Station – in preparation for Jose’s and Carla’s bail hearings today.
Here we picked up the forms RELEASED without CHARGE: “There is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”
This time I am accompanied by Terence Steele who is not only a victim of the secret family court system himself but also an accomplished private investigator and active McKenzie Friend.
He had spent time with the Pedros before and approached their two firms of solicitors who had refused to return their documents to them. These include a vital video of the oldest son Emanuel making a statement about his supposed allegation of his father having hit him. Continue reading →
The attache of the Embassy told the Pedros to ask me to continue helping them with their legal battles. And that after we were ordered to pay £2,000 for helping Melissa Laird voluntarily.
He managed to agree a ‘deal’ with Lincolnshire Council so that UK Social Services hand over the children to Portuguese authorities.
After nearly a year since the snatch on 23 April, this is a great success, compared with the Slovak boys who were only returned after 920 days in UK care and the involvement of the Slovak Government. More recently JOJ TV produced a new programme, as they were surprised that a year after their precedence, things had not improved in the UK.
To plan our next activities, I visited the Pedros in Grantham and let them tell their stories in Portuguese first. For after the first clip of SIC TV in Brussels, we had put high hopes on the program that RPT1 came to produce. But who would have believed that they gave her mother so much air time who was one of the reasons for leaving Portugal 11 years ago? The interviewer Rita Ramash never explained who gave her what kind of a brief and did not respond to my email.
Now we know once more why blogging needs to counteract ‘official’ messages and spin by Governments. But, hopefully, not everybody in the whole Government needs this kind of cover-up!
This is a well rounded articlecovering institutional dilemmas of responsibility and accountability between national, international and local representatives in The Portugal News Online.
Meanwhile, children are screaming to be heard, parents are punished without crime and ultimately even taking their lives, if not also of their children, in some cases…
John Hemming MP has now agreed with the Pedros’ local MP Nick Boles that he’ll lead the action. We couldn’t get better news!
Meanwhile I have put these summaries together for parents and supporters to take action:
