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Articles / The Crown season 4's most dramatic moments from Diana's bulimia to royal clash

« on: November 11, 2020, 03:39:59 PM »

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/crown-season-4s-most-scandalous-22987090?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Royalnews5&utm_campaign=royals_newsletter&ccid=2369561

The Crown season 4's most dramatic moments from Diana's bulimia to royal clash

The Crown season 4 arrives on Netflix on November 15 and fans have lots to look forward to including the arrivals of Lady Diana Spencer and Margaret Thatcher

By Lewis KnightFilm Writer

13:56, 10 NOV 2020 Updated 15:09, 10 NOV 2020

The latest season of The Crown is almost arriving on Netflix and will feature some explosive storylines.  The new episodes see The Queen (Olivia Colman) and Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) feeling more settled in their marriage but other dramas threaten the family future.  The monarch finds herself in an increasingly icy relationship with her new prime minister, the controversial Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson).  Elsewhere, the focus on Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) and his need to find a wife sees him focus his attention on the young, sweet, but vulnerable Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin).  However, from the beginning, it becomes clear that this will be one relationship that will not end well.

Here is what other explosive moments that fans have to look forward to in the new episodes.

1. Louis Mountbatten is assassinated

The new season opens in 1979 with the opening episode, Gold Sticks, depicting one of the darkest moments in the Royal Family's history.  Charles Dance reprises his role as Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the uncle of Prince Philip and close confidante and surrogate father to his great-nephew Prince Charles.  However, the family is horrified when Mountbatten is killed in a bomb blast as part of an assassination plot by the IRA in Ireland.  His death prompts Philip and Charles to mourn but also sees Charles take on board Mounbatten's advice in his last letter to the heir to the throne: to find a suitable wife.  Events depicted in the show surrounding Mounbatten's death did occur in real life, while even if his final letter was fictionalised, he did push Charles into marrying a virginal bride.

2. Margaret Thatcher versus The Queen

One of the chief focuses of the new run is the tense relationship between The Queen and her new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.  Despite initially appearing hopeful about the relationship, The Queen gradually finds herself resenting the abrasive Thatcher and her harsh economic policies.  While Thatcher's policies and personality remain controversial to this very day, The Queen has never publicly disparaged her and talk of any feud between the two remains speculative and rumoured.

3. Princess Diana's bulimia struggle

Multiple episodes of the new season come with a content warning at the beginning that notes the show will explicitly tackle Lady Diana Spencer's struggle with bulimia.  The new episodes depict Diana binging on food and often purging and being sick in the toilet on multiple occasions as she struggles with isolation and a lack of control as she finds herself thrust into Palace life.  These events mirror Princess Diana's own words of her experiences in her iconic Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.  She said: "It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help. It’s like having a pair of arms around you, but it’s temporary."

4. Prince Andrew's entrance

Actor Tom Byrne is introduced as the controversial Prince Andrew in the new season.  Arriving chaotically at one of his mother's residences in a helicopter, Andrew is portrayed as confident verging on arrogant and is his mother's favourite child.  His first appearance also sees him refer to his actress girlfriend starring in an erotically-charged film about a 17-year-old called The Awakening of Emily.  Andrew says: "She meets several twisted and perverted older predators who seduce the vulnerable, helpless, young Emily as we follow her induction into sensual pleasures."

When The Queen questions whether it is legal, Andrew responds: "Who cares?"

Andrew's romantic relationship with this US actress is a reference to Koo Stark, who he dated between 1981 to 1983.

4. Prince Charles and Princess Diana's affairs

The new episodes also depict the fraught marriage between the Prince and Princess of Wales.  From even before her marriage to Charles, we see Diana unhappy over the presence of Camilla Parker Bowles (Emerald Fennell) in their relationship.  As Charles continues to resent Diana's presence and later her popularity, he only pushes her further away and remains close to Camilla.  Thus we see Diana begin engaging in passions of her own, namely with James Hewitt, in a relationship that has been well-documented in real-life.  Diana also faces rumours of a 'revolving door' of male visitors at Buckingham Palace in the show, mirroring the constant speculation about her love life in real life.

5. Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace

A memorable moment from the history of Buckingham Palace has to be when unemployed painter and decorator Michael Fagan broke into the Queen's bedroom in 1982.  On what he claims was his second time breaking into the Palace, Fagan went into the Queen's bedroom and the pair briefly spoke.  In the show, Fagan (Tom Brooke) talks to the Queen about the damage being done to the country by Margaret Thatcher.  However, Fagan himself says that the show has taken "a lot of artistic license" with their encounter.

6. Camilla Parker Bowles admits she can't compete with Diana in the public's eyes

In a moving moment between Prince Charles and true love Camilla, she admits that the rising popularity of Diana in the 1980s means that she will never be approved of by the British public.  She said: "Thats what will happen if you put me in a popularity contest with her I will lose.  I’m an old woman, I’m a married woman, nowhere near as pretty, nowhere near as radiant.  She will always defeat me in the court of public opinion."

In real life, it would not be until 2005 and after Diana's death and both of their divorces that Camilla and Charles married.  It was decided that Camilla would not take the title of Princess of Wales and she was styled instead as Duchess of Cornwall.

7. The Queen tackles apartheid in South Africa

In the season's eighth episode, The Queen is seen working hard with Commonwealth leaders to pressure South Africa into ending its apartheid regime through sanctions.  However, The Queen finds resistance from Margaret Thatcher, prompting much negotiating behind the scenes and eventually the monarch lets criticism about the PM leak to the press.  In the end, The Queen and private secretary Martin Charteris scapegoat press secretary Michael Shea.  In real-life, Shea was named as the source but said that his comments were taken out of context and said that his subsequent departure from the Palace was unconnected to the scandal.  Meanwhile, contemporary Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney later said that The Queen was a "behind the scenes force" in ending apartheid in South Africa.

8. Prince Philip faces off with Princess Diana

Throughout much of the season, former outsider Prince Philip is an ally and early advocate of Lady Diana Spencer.  However, as her marriage with Charles disintegrates, Diana finds solace in her charity work, public appearances, and finding her own identity.  Yet, as Diana grows increasingly fiery with Charles, she butts heads with Philip who delivers an ominous warning to her when she threatens to leave Charles.  "I wouldn't do that if I were you," says Philip in the finale, "let's just say, I can’t see it ending well for you."

Diana responds: "I hope that isn't a threat, sir?"

Philip doesn't reply and eventually Diana joins the rest of the family at a gathering.  While it is unknown if such a confrontation took place, Philip is known to have written to Diana telling her to "help maintain the dignity of the Crown" and either to "fit in or get out".

The death of Princess Diana from a car crash in Paris in 1997 sparked endless conspiracy theories surrounding her fate and the role of Royal Family members in it.  However, the inquest into her death ruled there was no evidence of this.

92

Articles / We will remember them: The Queen, Prince Charles and Boris Johnson lead ....

« on: November 08, 2020, 01:26:12 PM »

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8926031/Millions-Britons-stay-home-Remembrance-Sunday-commemorations-online.html

We will remember them: The Queen, Prince Charles and Boris Johnson lead politicians and royals at the Cenotaph for socially-distanced Remembrance Sunday as millions of Britons are asked to pay their respects at home due to lockdown rules

    Strict social distancing is in place to allow the ceremony to go ahead at the Cenotaph this morning
    Mr Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, and former Prime Minister David Cameron among politicians in attendance
    Although the public are unable to attend, the event is being broadcast live on multiple channels
    Around 10,000 veterans would normally join the commemorations in London, this year there are just 26
    Ahead of today's service, Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid respects at Uxbridge War Memorial

By Harry Howard For Mailonline

Published: 09:49, 8 November 2020 | Updated: 12:00, 8 November 2020

The Queen, Prince Charles and Prime Minister Boris Johnson lead politicians and royals who paid their respects to Britain's war dead at the Cenotaph today.  Strict social distancing was in place to allow the ceremony to go ahead this morning despite the threat of coronavirus.  The public were unable to attend because of lockdown restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people across the UK will instead be privately paying their respects from home.  At the Cenotaph, around 10,000 veterans would normally pay their respects, but this year there were just 26 because of the risks presented by Covid-19.  As well as Mr Johnson and Sir Keir, former Prime Ministers David Cameron, Tony Blair and Theresa May, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey were among the politicians in attendance.  As the clock struck 11am, Mr Johnson, Prince Charles, Prince William and other members of Britain's elite marked the two-minute silence before laying their wreaths.   The Queen watched on from the royal box at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as Prince Charles laid a wreath on her behalf.  Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, along with Prince Edward and his wife the Countess of Wessex were also in attendance.  Ahead of today's service, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had said 'no virus can stop us' from commemorating the country's war dead as he paid his respects at Uxbridge War Memorial in west London at a low-key event on Saturday.  He said: 'We come together every November to commemorate the servicemen and women from Britain and the Commonwealth who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.  In this time of adversity, no virus can stop us from honouring their memory, particularly when we have just celebrated the 75th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.  And in times of trial, our tributes matter even more. So let's come together once again and remember those to whom we owe so much.'

In a video message ahead of his attendance at the Remembrance Sunday service, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: '2020 has been a year of struggle and sacrifice, and we know many challenges lie ahead.  But in these difficult times whenever we are in need of inspiration we can always look with pride, not only to our wartime generations or those who are currently serving our nation at home and abroad, but to all our servicemen and women who throughout this pandemic have stood side by side with our key workers in the battle against this virus.  So on this special Remembrance Sunday where we mark 80 years since the Battle of Britain and 75 years since the end of the Second World War, let us say thanks to all those who have served and all those who continue to serve this great country.'

Sir Kier, along with Mr Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and the SNP's leader in the House of Commons Sir Ian Blackford, was earlier pictured walking down Downing Street on his way to the Cenotaph on Sunday.  As well as the Queen, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Edward and his wife the Countess of Wessex was also in attendance.  Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, stepped down as a working member of the royal family and now lives in California.  But in a podcast to mark Remembrance Sunday the former Army officer said: 'Being able to wear my uniform, being able to stand up in service of one's country, these are amongst the greatest honours there are in life.  To me, the uniform is a symbol of something much bigger, it's symbolic of our commitment to protecting our country, as well as protecting our values.  These values are put in action through service, and service is what happens in the quiet and in the chaos.'

In a brief ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday, the Queen commemorated the 100th anniversary of the interment of the Unknown Warrior, who represents the First World War soldiers whose place of death is not known or whose remains are unidentified.  The 94-year-old monarch had requested the service her first public engagement in London since March after she was advised not to attend an abbey service marking the warrior's centenary next week, which the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall are expected to join on November 11, Armistice Day.  People are being encouraged to join commemorations on Sunday by sharing family histories, personal stories and messages of remembrance using the hashtag £WeWillRememberThem online.  Meanwhile, genealogy company Ancestry has made more than one billion UK wartime records free to access over the weekend for people to discover the roles their family played in the First and Second World Wars.  About 150 personnel from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force will be on parade at the Cenotaph, with musicians from all three services to play traditional music for the service, including the Last Post played by Buglers of the Royal Marines.   Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: 'Many of the men and women on parade today have already taken part in efforts to fight coronavirus and many more will do so in the weeks to come.  I applaud their selflessness.'

General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the Defence Staff, said some veterans might find Remembrance Sunday a lonely experience this year due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place.  Sir Nick told the BBC One's Andrew Marr Show the guidelines would be 'particularly tough on our veterans', adding: 'They traditionally have had the opportunity to get together and talk about their memories and their reflections, but equally to strut their stuff.'

Vice-Marshal Chris Elliot, controller of the RAF Benevolent Fund, said: 'Services across the UK will sadly look and feel very different this year but what's important is the significance of Remembrance Sunday has not changed.  Today remains a poignant reminder to reflect on the bravery and sacrifice of all those who served.  The tenacity and comradery of previous generations in their struggles should serve as an inspiration to us all as we deal with new challenges Covid-19 presents.  It should also remind us of the great debt we owe to our veterans, to keep their memories alive.'

To mark Remembrance Sunday, members of the public have been encouraged to share their family histories and commemorative messages online using the hashtag #WeWillRememberThem.  Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: 'While this year's service is a little different to normal, I want to encourage everyone to get involved from their own homes watch on your TV, research your family history but most importantly, keep safe.'

The commemorations come after the former head of the Royal Navy Lord West of Spithead led a backlash against a ban on services inside churches and warned veterans faced catching pneumonia by being forced to stand outside.   As a result of winter coronavirus lockdown restrictions, most religious services are banned and anyone caught attending one could face a £200 fine.   John 'Paddy' Hemingway, the 101-year-old last survivor of the Battle of Britain, is said to be upset by the move.  His son Brian Hemingway said the veteran 'feels sad,' people will not be able to come together on Sunday.  But growing uproar from former senior members of the armed forces, and former defence secretary Michael Fallon, has seen calls for an exemption so the day can be properly commemorated.  Lord West of Spithead, the former First Sea Lord, told The Telegraph: 'If you look at the average size of a church there must be a way of letting veterans in with social distancing.  It seems very silly to have them standing outside in the freezing cold. This puts them more at risk. They will die of pneumonia rather than Covid.'

The Royal British Legion earlier confirmed there will not be the annual March Past the Cenotaph.  On its website the charity said it recognised the decision was 'deeply disappointing,' adding it was taken following Government advice.  Guidance from the Government allows local authorities in England to organise events at a 'public war memorial or cenotaph' so long as they are held outdoors, they are short and those in attendance observe social distancing measures.  Former Prime Minister Theresa May also criticised the decision to ban church services.  She told the House of Commons: 'The Covid-secure Remembrance service in Worcester Cathedral is now going to be turned into a pre-recorded online service.  Surely those men and women who gave down their lives for our freedom deserve better than this?' 

Former Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, said: 'Veterans are perfectly capable of social distancing and wearing face masks for half an hour and I hope the Government will think again. It seems ridiculous. We trusted veterans to put their lives on the line for the country but we cannot trust them to stand two metres apart in church.'

Several members in the House of Lords raised concerns over the impact of the move on people's mental health, pointing out that for many elderly people attending church was their only regular social activity.

Defending the rule, Communities Minister Lord Greenhalgh said: 'We have come to a critical point in the fight against Covid-19.'

Stressing the need to 'limit our interaction with others', he said: 'Therefore, with great regret, while places of worship will remain open for individual prayer, communal worship cannot take place at this time.'

Pressing the minister, Tory peer Lord Cormack said he had 'not given a single shred of evidence as to why churches should not be open for public worship'.

He said a remembrance service had been planned for this Sunday in Lincoln Cathedral, which was 'an immense space where everybody can be properly socially distanced'.

Lord Cormack added: 'Instead, the Government have come up with an imbecilic answer that the veterans, all of whom are 90 and over, can stand in the cold and be rained on, but they cannot go into a safe, socially distanced cathedral.   This is a disgrace.'

The Queen wears a face mask for the first time in public as she marks centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey

By Bridie Pearson-Jones and Jack Wright for MailOnline

The Queen wore a face mask for the first time in public last week as she marked the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior in a small private ceremony in Westminster Abbey.  Her Majesty, 94, honoured the British serviceman, whose identity remains a mystery, and the Royal Family's own associations with World War One at the London abbey ahead of Remembrance Sunday.  The head of state, who was dressed all in black as she placed an orchid and myrtle bouquet on the grave, was required to cover her face during the act of worship under government restrictions.  It reflected the custom of Royal bridal bouquets being placed on the grave, a tradition which began in 1923 when Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, laid her bouquet as she entered the Abbey in memory of her brother Fergus, who was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915.  Many Royal brides since have sent their bouquets to the grave at Westminster Abbey.  Before her death in 2002, The Queen Mother also requested her funeral wreath be placed on the grave of the Unknown Warrior - a wish honoured at the Abbey the day after her funeral.  During the ceremony this week, Her Majesty also joined the Dean of Westminster in prayers and a moment of reflection after the bouquet was laid on the grave, before The Queen's Piper played a lament, The Flowers of the Forest.  The grave of the Unknown Warrior is the final resting place of an unidentified British serviceman who died on the battlefields during the First World War. The serviceman's body was brought from Northern France and buried at Westminster Abbey on 11th November 1920 after a procession through Whitehall.  The Queen's grandfather, King George V, placed a wreath on the coffin at the Cenotaph, which was unveiled on the processional route.  His Majesty later dropped a handful of earth from France onto the serviceman's coffin as it was lowered into the grave at the Abbey.   He was joined at the burial by his son, the future King George VI.  The Unknown Warrior became an important symbol of mourning for bereaved families, representing all those who lost their lives in the First World War but whose place of death was not known, or whose bodies remained unidentified. It remains a solemn tribute to all service personnel who have lost their lives in combat.  The Queen was photographed leaving Windsor Castle on Wednesday before returning two hours later, where it is understood she is now self-isolating with husband Prince Philip, 99.  She looked sombre in a black ensemble, typically only worn while in mourning, attending a funeral, or for Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday services.   The Court Circular for November 4 reads: 'The Queen this morning commemorated the Centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, London SW1, and was received at the Great West Door by the Dean of Westminster (the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle).'

The Queen has carried out only a handful of engagements since March and is expected to keep a low profile over the next month as she and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, spend lockdown together at Windsor Castle.  The Duchess of Cornwall also carried out an engagement at Westminster Abbey yesterday, standing in for Prince Harry to visit the Field of Remembrance.  She then stood in front of crosses from the Graves of the Unknown as the Dean offered prayers, before solemnly laying her own cross of remembrance and bowing her head in reflection.  A bugler played the Last Post, followed by a two-minute silence, and then Exhortation to Remembrance, as Big Ben chimed at 2pm.  Afterwards the duchess toured the 308 plots filled with more than 60,000 crosses and symbols of all faiths, laid by staff and volunteers, with Surgeon Rear Admiral Lionel Jarvis, President of The Poppy Factory.  Remembrance Sunday services, which are traditionally part of communal worship, cannot go ahead as planned on November 8 due to lockdown restrictions.  However, rather than being banned entirely the Government has set out a series of guidelines for local authorities and faith leaders hoping to hold the services. 

Prince Harry 'deeply saddened' after his request to have a wreath laid on his behalf was 'refused' by Buckingham Palace

The Duke of Sussex was reportedly refused permission for a wreath to be laid at the Cenotaph on his behalf today, in the latest sign of a family rift.  Prince Harry, who spent ten years in the armed forces, made the personal request to Buckingham Palace, but was refused due to the fact he had left royal duties in March, The Times reported.  The Queen was not thought to have been informed of the request or its refusal, which is said to have 'deeply saddened' the Duke of Sussex, the publication reports.  Prince Harry emphasised the importance of Remembrance Sunday during an appearance on a military podcast to mark the event, which airs today.  He described the day as 'a moment for respect and for hope', in an interview with the Declassified podcast.  The former royal said: 'The act of remembering, of remembrance, is a profound act of honour. It's how we preserve the legacies of entire generations and show our gratitude for the sacrifices they made in order for us to be able to live the lives we live today.'

How to get involved in Remembrance Sunday

Even though this year's Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph is closed to the public, the Government says there are many ways you can get involved.  People have been invited to share their personal stories and family histories on social media using the hashtag #WeWillRememberThem.  They are also invited to post a tribute to the Royal British Legion's virtual Field of Remembrance or on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Wall of Remembrance.  Britons can also watch Sunday's Cenotaph service on television and online

Other ways to get involved include:

    Supporting the Poppy appeal by donating through the post and displaying your own poppy or Remembrance window display.

    Hold a small Remembrance service in your garden or write letters of remembrance to veterans or serving personnel.

    Look up your own family history on Ancestry. The firm has made them free to access to mark this year's commemorations.

    The Royal Air Force Museum is asking people to write poems to go on its online gallery.     

Which Royal bridal bouquets were laid on the grave of the Unknown Warrior?

    The Queen Mother, 1923
    The Queen, 1947
    Princess Margaret, 1960
    Princess Alexandra, 1963
    The Princess Royal, 1973
    Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981
    Sarah, Duchess of York, 1986
    The Countess of Wessex, 1999
    The Duchess of Cornwall, 2005
    The Duchess of Cambridge, 2011
    The Duchess of Sussex, 2018
    Princess Eugenie, 2018
    Princess Beatrice, 2020

93

Articles / Mum taken to safe house after 'wicked' daughter secretly sent her death threats

« on: November 04, 2020, 10:47:21 AM »

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-taken-safe-house-after-22942632?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Mirror12at23&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&ccid=2369561

Mum taken to safe house after 'wicked' daughter secretly sent her death threats

Sonya Harris, 39, secretly sent 45 abusive and threatening messages to her mum in May and June earlier this year, leading police to take both women to a safe house

By Michael Mutch

09:34, 2 NOV 2020

A daughter secretly threatened her own mum through abusive texts sent over two months.  Sonya Harris, 39, sent 45 abusive and threatening messages to her mum in May and June earlier this year.  She called her a “selfish f****** prozzy” who would go “boom boom, bye bye”, Hull Daily Mail reported.

Harris hoped that her mum would think the texts were from her two sons, whom she had fallen out with in the past.  She went out of her way to disguise the fact she was sending the messages, some of which threatened her and the victim's grandson, by buying a pay-as-you-go phone.  Fearing for their safety, the mum was transferred to a safe house along with Harris and the grandson by police.  Initially, the mum believed they came from her two sons and one was arrested in relation to the texts.  Her daughter Sonya pretended to sympathise with her mum during this period and was there to support her.  The victim was left "sick to her stomach" when police uncovered that it was actually her own "supportive" daughter who was sending the messages.  The first message was sent shortly before 8pm on May 31 when Harris wrote: “You selfish f****** prozzy. How much do you charge? You and your girl watch out we know where she lives. We will do you in bang bang.”

A further message on June 1 read “watch out as we see you always” and the texts carried on into June 2 when Harris’ mother decided to leave her home, along with her pregnant granddaughter and great grandson.  Harris was the only person who knew where her mum had gone and on June 6 she sent another message.  “You can run but you can’t hide,” it read.

“We know where you are. We are ready for you you f***** snitches and grasses.  “You are all going under. Boom boom, bye bye.”

Two gun emojis were also used to sign off the text.  Police traced a top-up transaction of the phone used to send the texts at a shop close to Harris’ home.  CCTV footage showed it was Harris standing at the counter purchasing the top-up.  When she was arrested she admitted that it was her who sent the messages.  In total, 45 threatening texts were sent to her mother who was in disbelief when she was told the truth by officers.  “Being threatened about having my life taken away from me was beyond what I would consider psychotic and has had an impacton my own mental health,” she said in a victim personal statement. 

"I’m getting close to retirement age and should enjoy time with my family.  "Instead, I am running away from someone I feel I should be safe around.  My daughter was the last person I expected to be behind these messages. When I told her about them she seemed supportive.  I believed there had to be a mistake. I couldn’t take it in. I was sick to my stomach.  I am hurt by what she has done. I keep thinking why she would do this.”

Prosecuting barrister Catherine Kioko-Gilligan told  Hull Crown Court  that the relationship between Harris and her mum was actually a “loving and supportive” one at the time and that Harris considered her mum to be “her rock”.  Ms Kioko-Gilligan added: “The relationship between the complainant and her two sons had been strained and had resulted in police intervention in the past.”

During police interview, Harris admitted to officers that she “wanted her brothers to suffer as she had done during the course of previous family disputes,” said Ms Kioko-Gilligan.

But her mother was not the only one who Harris had sent threatening messages to.  In another effort to pit family members against each other Harris sent a message to another woman on June 8.  It read: “Hessle Road s****. Well-known prozzies. How much do you charge?  Tell that ginger bloke and daft c**** all dead. You start bulls*** we finish it.”

Harris appeared at Hull Crown Court on Friday, October 30, to be sentenced for one count of harassment through fear of violence and a second count of malicious communication.  Unrepresented in court, Recorder Menary gave her an opportunity to plead her case before passing sentence.  Sobbing in the dock, Harris said: “I am sorry for what I have put people through.  I did the worst thing I could have done to hurt my mum and other people. It is not the kind of person I am and I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart.  It is killing me not seeing my mum. If I could be given a second chance to prove myself because I don’t want to be taken away from my family and my babies.”

Recorder Menary described Harris’ actions as “wicked” and that they had caused “huge damage” to her own family.  He added that it had been an “enormous, shocking waste” of police time.  Recorded Menary said: “It is clear to me there has been considerable family strain in the past and your mum did not enjoy a good relationship with her two sons.  You embarked on a wicked course of conduct. You sent abusive messages to your mother in the hope she would think it was your brothers, hoping to drive a further wedge between them.  You sent 45 messages to her threatening considerable harm to her, to you, your daughter and her child.  The messages are appalling and abhorrent.  Although you say today this offence was out of character and you are truly sorry I agree with the assessment that you have very limited insight to the huge damage you have caused to your own family.  You have no insight into the enormous shocking waste of police time and effort in tracking you down.”

However, Harris’ mother stated in her statement she did not wish for her daughter to be sent to prison but rather seek help.  Recorder Menary agreed by sentencing Harris to a two-year prison term suspended for two years.  A restraining order has also been put in place where she cannot contact her mother for five years.

94

Articles / Mothers are having their newborn babies taken into care after remote family.....

« on: October 29, 2020, 04:35:46 PM »

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8884165/Newborn-babies-taken-care-remote-family-court-hearings-report-reveals.html

Mothers are having their newborn babies taken into care after remote family court hearings from their hospital bed during pandemic, report reveals

    Almost half of parents or relatives didn't understand well proceedings by phone
    Many parents participating in life-changing hearings by phone rather than video
    In some cases mothers told babies would be taken into care from hospital beds

By Faith Ridler For Mailonline
 
Around half of parents or relatives involved in remote hearings during the Covid-19 pandemic did not understand exactly what was happening in the proceedings, a study published today by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory found.  Around 88 per cent said they had 'worries and concerns' about the way a case was dealt with, while the majority of professionals believed 'fairness and justice' was delivered on most occasions. The report, commissioned by the President of the Family Division of the High Court, Sir Andrew McFarlane, was undertaken as courts in England and Wales rapidly adapted to using telephone and video hearings following lockdown in March.  n the two-week period between March 23 and April 6, audio hearings across all courts and tribunals increased by over 500 per cent, and video hearings by 340 per cent.  The report said parents were often having to participate in life-changing hearings about their children by phone rather than video link, with many struggling to understand what was going on in the court.  It noted particular concern about hearings in which newborn babies were taken into care shortly after birth. In these cases, the mother would often join by phone from the hospital.  'There is nothing fair about a remote hearing which requires you to remove a newborn baby from its mother,' one judge said. 'Remote hearings do not enable you to show empathy.'

A barrister added: 'I was required to represent a mother who was in hospital having given birth where removal was sought. She had no support and she took part by phone.'

The study, for which 1,100 professionals and 132 family members were contacted, added 'mothers have frequently not been able to have any physical contact with their babies following their removal.'

One barrister said contact had 'generally been virtual' between a mother and child throughout the pandemic, which they dubbed 'inadequate.'  'The children are not able to develop or maintain a bond with their parent on a screen - particularly young babies and toddlers. It can be very confusing for the children,' the lawyer said.

Social workers also condemned a lack of contact as 'horrendous', describing how one baby removed at four months old had no contact with its mother for six months.   In another case, a barrister said: '[The] mother posed no risk to the child and the [local authority] was incredibly slow to even think about facilitating in-person contact, relying on the lack of resources.  The judge was sympathetic to the lack of resources issue and told me that she could not make facilities available that simply weren't available.  I accept that, but this child was under one year old and had not seen its mother for five months.'

Concerns were also raised about 'the difficulty of creating an empathetic and supportive environment' in remote hearings, particularly when parents are participating by phone in proceedings where care or adoption orders are made.  One barrister said: 'The orders made are the right ones but it is deeply stressful intrusive and unpleasant for parents to have to attend hearings from their own homes, and without the support of their legal representative being with them.'

Another social worker witnessed the 'harrowing' ordeal of a parent who 'sobbed alone' in their flat after hearing a judge rule that they would not be granted custody of their baby.  One judge added: 'I worry about making orders which may be very distressing to a participant, e.g. the removal of their child.  In court, they'd at least have a lawyer with whom they could grieve, rant, consider appeal, and have support.  By phone or video, they may be in remote hearings in the family justice system in their bedroom, alone and in despair, perhaps with the child and now awaiting a visit from a social worker.'

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew, said in response to the report: 'This emergency is without precedent. Judges and others have worked tirelessly, and continue to do so, so that the Family Court has continued to function without a break since the start of lockdown in March.  We have adjusted, developed and adapted our methods of working as the crisis has persisted. Much of the work of the Family Court cannot be left to wait as many cases, involving the welfare of children as well as adults, are urgent.'   

He added: 'Encouragingly, most professionals, including judges, barristers, solicitors, Cafcass workers, court staff and social workers, felt that, overall, the courts were now working more effectively and that there were even some benefits for all to working remotely.  However, the report highlights a number of areas of concern that need to be addressed. There are clearly circumstances where more support is required to enable parents and young people to take part in remote hearings effectively.  It is worrying that some parents report that they have not fully understood, or felt a part of, the remote court process. Whilst technology is improving, there is clearly still work to be done to improve the provision of Family Justice via remote means.  I am very alert to the concerns raised in this report, and I will be working with the judiciary and the professions to develop solutions.'

95

Articles / 'State-sanctioned child trafficking. There is no other word for it.' - Jean....

« on: October 29, 2020, 04:05:40 PM »

https://www.teaomaori.news/state-sanctioned-child-trafficking-there-no-other-word-it-jean-te-huia

'State-sanctioned child trafficking. There is no other word for it.' - Jean Te Huia
4:19pm, Tuesday 27 October 2020. By Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes

Ngā Maia Māori Midwives Aotearoa president Jean Te Huia believes Oranga Tamariki can't be fixed.  "You can't fix something that's been specifically designed to do what it does," she told the Waitangi Tribunal.

The second week of the Oranga Tamariki Urgent Inquiry (Wai 2915) hearings are underway, and witnesses are presenting evidence before the Waitangi Tribunal in Hastings.  Te Huia said the welfare agency ran "state-sanctioned child trafficking."

"There is no other word for it. Especially when our government doesn't maintain transparency around the data. When they don't share that data with other agencies. When there's a collaboration of agencies who have different types of data. And especially when parents and mothers ask where their children are, and nobody can tell them where they are. We can't have a system that hides that important information about tamariki. We cannot allow that. It can't happen", she said.  'An awakening of us all'

A midwife for nearly 30years, Te Huia initiated the urgent inquiry, and was the midwife at the centre of a case 18 months ago that went viral following a story by Newsroom, in which a six-day-old baby was the subject of an attempted removal in hospital by Oranga Tamariki.  Since then, there have been four reviews of Oranga Tamariki by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, the Office of the Children's Commissioner, the Chief Ombudsman plus a Hawke's Bay practice review.  "I would like to say it's been enlightening, I think we're learning all the time. There's so many on this journey with me, others before have been trying and pushing this kaupapa. There are those who walk alongside me and there those who are new and have just been awakened to what's happening and I think that's been part of the journey is the learning it's a huge kind of awareness, an awakening of us all," Te Huia said.

Welcoming tribunal process

Oranga Tamariki is embracing the inquiry process: "The Waitangi Tribunal urgent inquiry is likely to also make recommendations about improving the system for Māori. We want to hear what these recommendations are, so we can continue to achieve better outcomes for tamariki Māori."

Te Huia was less optimistic. "They haven't changed. We will never get change because the system is designed to do exactly what it's doing. It cannot be fixed because it's not broken. It cannot be changed because it's been designed as it does today to do what it does. When people say, 'oh how can you fix it?', well you can't. You can't fix something that's been specifically designed to do what it does."

Te Huia said it was not only Māori who were harmed by child welfare systems orchestrated by the state because it was something that impacted on indigenous peoples worldwide.  "One of the legacies of state child apprehensions is the fact that it's carried out across the world in indigenous countries. Canada, Australia, America, New Zealand. So we're not alone. As Māori we're not alone. This is a problem that's insidious, hand in hand with colonisation and, while we pretend it's just a Māori problem, it's not," Te Huia said.

Oranga Tamariki said: "We'll continue to work with our partners to ensure whānau, hapū and iwi are involved in decision-making about their tamariki to develop new ways of working together."

The hearings will continue through to Friday.

96

Articles / Woman tracked down birth father only to find he'd tried to kill her as a toddler

« on: October 11, 2020, 06:12:14 PM »

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-tracked-down-birth-father-22824054?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=EM_Mirror_Nletter_DailyNews_News_smallteaser_Image_Story1&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&ccid=2369561

Woman tracked down birth father only to find he'd tried to kill her as a toddler

EXCLUSIVE: Chloe Wilkinson was adopted as a child and discovered when she tried to trace her real dad that he had been jailed for trying to kill her when she was just two

By Alex Lloyd

18:38, 10 OCT 2020 Updated 18:49, 10 OCT 2020

A woman adopted as a child today tells how she traced her real dad on a school computer and found he’d gone to jail for trying to kill her when she was just two years old.  Chloe Wilkinson made the chilling discovery as a 12-year-old schoolgirl by reading a court report telling how he’d given her a deadly overdose of adult painkillers and slapped her face hard.  Devastated, she wanted to believe his defence blaming her for accidentally swallowing the 16 tablets thinking they were sweets.  So she tracked him down at 14 to ask him face to face.  But it all ended badly and disability support worker Chloe now 19 and a mum herself, only had the truth confirmed two years later through damning evidence in a photograph.  Chloe says: “I always felt a massive sense of rejection growing up and was very curious about my past.  I didn’t have the best relationship with my adoptive family and built a picture of my real parents being amazing people who made a massive mistake.  When I asked my adoptive mother about them, all she would say was my mum had me at 16 and my dad was a bad man.  I was convinced she was lying and decided to investigate using the library computer at school.”

The report of the case at Maidstone Crown Court said her father Gary MacManus, then 21, had custody of Chloe after splitting from her mum when the attack happened in November 2003.  His girlfriend at the time rushed the tot to hospital.  Police found only adult fingerprints on the pills box. Her binman dad was jailed for five years for assault causing actual bodily harm and administering a noxious thing so as to endanger life.  “When I read it, I was in shock,” says Chloe. “The reality was a world away from what I’d imagined.”

But she could not bring herself to fully believe her own father had harmed her.  Her relationship with her adoptive family then broke down and she went back into care but still hungry for the truth she tracked down her birth mother on Facebook and they arranged to meet.  The reunion began with hugs and tears but Chloe, of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, was furious when her mum told her she had given custody of her to her father despite knowing he had a volatile temper.  The disability support worker said: “I didn’t feel any closure, I just had more questions. When she told me my real dad had been in touch and asked about me, I told her to pass on my number so I could get answers.”

With the help of social services, Chloe arranged to meet MacManus at a Harvester restaurant in 2015 when she was 14 and confront him about the night she nearly died.  He had served half his five-year sentence before marrying and having another child.  Chloe says: “He was at a table. I wasn’t scared as I had my residential worker with me and had no intention of building a relationship with him.  He seemed normal and nice as we made small talk, not the sort of person who could mistreat a child. It threw me massively.  When I asked about what happened, he denied he had given me the tablets and blamed me. He didn’t show a shred of remorse.  After two hours, I felt more confused than ever and angry he had got on with his life while I was still in limbo.”

Later Chloe sent him a last-ditch text begging for the truth. MacManus told her to believe what she wanted to believe.  It wasn’t until December 2017 that she finally received evidence of the attack from her adoptive mother. “I was 16 then and she said I could claim compensation as a crime victim. She gave me paperwork from the case.  When I opened it, I wept. There was a photo of my tiny, bruised face. The proof I needed. It made me feel sick.”

Three years on, Chloe is married to builder Matt, 31. They have two children. But she still struggles with the life-changing attack she can’t remember.  She said: “I’ve craved a loving family. Now I’ve got one. I watch my husband with our children and see how a real dad should be. It’s bittersweet. I’ll never get the truth from my dad. He had his chance. I don’t need to hear from him again.”

97

Articles / Why Ibram Kendi Is Facing a Backlash Over a Tweet About Amy Coney Barrett's ...

« on: September 30, 2020, 02:52:39 PM »

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-ibram-kendi-is-facing-a-backlash-over-a-tweet-about-amy-coney-barretts-adopted-haitian-children/ar-BB19tI2H

Why Ibram Kendi Is Facing a Backlash Over a Tweet About Amy Coney Barrett's Adopted Haitian Children
Jason Lemon

Amidst the contentious debate over President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, academic and best-selling author Ibram X. Kendi drew backlash over a series of tweets regarding the judge's adopted Haitian children.  Democrats and left-wing activists are staunchly opposed to Barrett's nomination, as she is deeply conservative and would shift the balance of power further to the right making a six-to-three conservative majority on the top court. Lawmakers on the left have warned that reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, health care and immigration issues could all be threatened by her appointment.  Barrett, a white woman, is the mother to seven children including two Black children she and her husband adopted from Haiti. Some commentators, such as right-wing pundit Candace Owens, had suggested that this signifies she cannot be accused of being racist. Kendi argued, however, that adopting Black children does not necessarily mean a person is not racist, although he also did not call Barrett racist.  "Some White colonizers 'adopted' Black children. They 'civilized' these 'savage' children in the 'superior' ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity," Kendi, a professor of humanities at Boston University, tweeted on Saturday.

"And whether this is Barrett or not is not the point. It is a belief too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can't be racist," the academic wrote.

After receiving criticism, Kendi added a further clarification as he saw some were misconstruing his remarks.  "I'm challenging the idea that White parents of kids of color are inherently 'not racist' and the bots completely change what I'm saying to 'White parents of kids of color are inherently racist.' These live and fake bots are good at their propaganda. Let's not argue with them," he wrote.

Several right-wing sites published articles critically framing Kendi's remarks. "The backlash is intense after left-wing author suggests Amy Coney Barrett adopted Haitian children to shield herself from accusations of racism,"

The Blaze website titled an article. An article by The Federalist claimed that Kendi had called Barrett "a white supremacist."

"Ibram Kendi launches a cruel, racist attack against Judge Barrett and her family. But what else would we expect from a fraud like him?" GOP Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote, re-tweeting Kendi's post.

Newsweek reached out to a press representative for Kendi to ask for further comment, but he did not respond by the time of publication. In a Sunday tweet, Kendi appeared to push back against the criticism he had received.  "We should take it as a compliment when people attack us personally or when people misrepresent our work. Because that means they can't challenge what we are actually saying or writing or meaning or doing. Take the compliments with grace and move on," he wrote.

Barrett has never made a political issue of her adoptive children. Colleagues and friends have publicly spoken highly of her parenting, pointing out that she is actively involved in her children's lives and schooling.  In addition to his academic work, Kendi is also a correspondent for CBS News and a writer for The Atlantic. He serves as the director of Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is also currently working on a new project through a fellowship at Harvard entitled Bones of Inequity: A Narrative History of Racist Policies in America.

98

Articles / Moment cop killer is arrested: Footage reveals how police vehicles raced to....

« on: September 26, 2020, 05:40:01 PM »

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8775309/The-London-tower-block-police-arrested-cop-killer-having-ammunition-MISSED-gun.html

Moment cop killer is arrested: Footage reveals how police vehicles raced to arrest 'extremist' firearms suspect, 23, before he was taken to custody centre and shot dead sergeant with hidden pistol

•   EXC: A police cordon remains at Anderson Heights, Norbury, from where the 23-year-old suspect was taken
•   Matiu Ratana, 54, was shot at 2.15am on Friday by a man at Croydon custody centre in Croydon, South London
•   Officers and paramedics treated the officer at the scene of shooting before he was taken to hospital and died
•   Man was handcuffed behind his back when shots fired from revolver which he had stuffed down his trousers
•   Sources said officers failed to find the small firearm as it had been well concealed and required strip search

By James Fielding and Jack Elsom and Shekhar Bhatia and Mark Duell for MailOnline and Rebecca Camber and David Churchill and Glen Keogh For The Daily Mail

Published: 11:34, 26 September 2020 | Updated: 15:39, 26 September 2020

The gunman who shot a Metropolitan Police custody sergeant inside a station had been stopped by officers on the pavement outside a block of South London flats, MailOnline can reveal.  A cordon remains at Anderson Heights, Norbury, from where the suspect, 23, was taken to Croydon custody centre before shooting 54-year-old Sergeant Matiu Ratana with his hands supposedly cuffed behind his back.  Footage captured in the early hours of Friday shows the suspect walking on the London Road in the direction of Streatham when he was stopped by a squad car outside the five-storey apartment as unsuspecting motorists drive past.  At 1.44am a rapid response vehicle arrives, followed two minutes later by a police van. The suspect is seen taken into the van at 1.47am.  It is unclear as to whether he was searched or handcuffed at the scene, but he did not appear to be behaving aggressively and seemed to cooperate with the officers.  Minutes later, a third police car arrives to block London Road as the police van leaves with the suspect at 1.50am.  Just after the van pulls away, three officers start searching a bush and shrubbery on the edge of the car park to the block of flats.  Officers were manning the tower block this morning, where a blue Peugeot and silver Vauxhall Corsa were seen inside the cordon and a stairwell next to the apartments has been taped off.  Scotland Yard is under mounting pressure to explain how the suspect managed to apparently conceal the revolver down his trousers and then open fire on the veteran officer from New Zealand while in handcuffs.  Sources said officers failed to find the suspect's gun as it had been well hidden and would have been recovered only with an intimate strip search and body cavity check. Sergeant Ratana was allegedly shot five times in the chest at point-blank range as he prepared to search the handcuffed suspect, who had been detained for possession of ammunition and Class B drugs with intent to supply, with a metal detector in a Covid screening cell. Tributes from loved-ones, colleagues and politicians continue to pour in for the rugby-loving 'big friendly bear', who was months away from retirement. Sergeant Ratana was a coach at East Grinstead Rugby Football Club and leaves behind a grown-up son and partner Sue Bushby who he lived with in Goring, Sussex.  Ms Bushby's mother Penelope today said her daughter was with Sergeant Ratana for 'six wonderful years'.  Talking exclusively to Mail Online, she revealed that Sue had also lost her father Roy earlier this year and that Sergeant Ratana had been a pillar of strength.  The gunman, who was arrested by a special constable on patrol with two regular officers, is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the neck from his own weapon.  Scotland Yard has launched a probe into the background of the suspect, who was deemed a 'potential terror threat' and had been referred to the Prevent programme which aims to stop vulnerable people being drawn into extremism, it has been claimed.  The suspect was arrested on suspicion of possessing ammunition and Class B drugs with intent to supply. Cannabis resin is understood to have been found on his person.  They searched the suspect after he was seen behaving strangely before handcuffing him and driving him to the police station. Sergeant Ratana who has a 26-year-old son from a previous relationship was about to search the handcuffed suspect with a metal detector in a Covid screening cell when the man produced a revolver that he had stuffed down his trousers.  The 23-year-old fired the gun with his hands still handcuffed behind his back hitting the veteran officer allegedly several times in the heart at point-blank range. In the ensuing chaos the attacker's weapon went off again, wounding him in his neck, but he remains alive in a critical condition. The suspect is believed to be autistic and of Sri Lankan origin, according to The Times.  Sergeant Ratana was airlifted to hospital after desperate medics performed open heart surgery on him in the custody centre, The Sun reports.  Sergeant Ratana, who's job was to look after the care and welfare of detained people, died in hospital.  Originally from Hawke's Bay, he came to the UK in 1989 and became a protection officer for Princess Diana, the Queen Mother and former-Prime Minister John Major, The Mirror reports.  And, in 1992, the hero officer found himself less than 330 yards away from an IRA car bomb which was exploding outside 10 Downing Street.  Friend Amanda Tessier, a community nurse, whose sister Sue Bushby has been in a relationship with the officer for four years, said: 'He was a great big friendly bear of a man, one of the loveliest men you could meet.'

Father-of-one Sergeant Ratana has been described by his fellow officers as a 'real gentleman' and 'one of the best' while Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick said he was known as a 'big guy' with a 'big heart'.  Last night New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was 'incredibly sad news' one of her country's former police officers had died.  Mrs Tessier added: 'He was absolutely dedicated to being a police officer and had almost 30 years of service. He knew the dangers of being a police officer in London and he had spoken about them but for him it was all part of the job. It was something he was trained in and used to.  He was such a lovely guy. He was a big friendly guy. He liked to keep fit and loved his rugby but he also liked a burger or two. We simply can't believe it. How did someone have a gun in the police station?  'I'm sure there is going to be a huge investigation by the Met but it doesn't seem right at all.' 

Mrs Tessier said her sister was devastated by the news and was being comforted by friends.  She said: 'They had been together for about four years. She got a knock on the door in the morning. It's just devastating. We can't believe it. He was the life and soul, a real fun-loving guy who was totally committed to doing his job.'

She said he was a passionate rugby fan who coached players. 'They'll be devastated by this. He coached the juniors as well,' she said, breaking down in tears. 'It's just awful.'   

Police protocol decrees this cannot be done by the roadside and requires authorisation from a sergeant at a custody centre.  The detained man was in a Covid screening cell, which is part of custody procedure during the pandemic, when he launched the attack. Two officers pounced on the suspect in a bid to stop him.  It came as Sergeant Ratana opened the cell door to search him with a metal detector.  The force has launched a investigation, focusing on why the gun was not found when he was searched.  Mick Neville a former Detective Chief Inspector told The Sun that 'criminals have been known to strap guns to their upper leg or even push the barrel into intimate areas leaving just the hand grip showing. Even the most experienced officer could miss this.  The sergeant could have been more exposed to danger due to Covid-19 procedures.'

Sgt Ratana, known as Matt to family and friends, thought working in the custody suite was his 'safest option' as he neared the end of his lengthy police career, friend Neil Donohue said.  Mr Donohue told BBC Breakfast: 'He thought it was his safest option just to see him through to his retirement and no-one expected this to happen certainly not within the police cells.'

Sergeant Ratana is the grandson of Iriaka Ratana, the first Maori woman MP, and cousin of New Zealand Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe, who told the NZ Herald: 'Everyone is really devastated to hear the news he has passed.  'He was really proud to be a police officer, he was also really proud to be Maori from New Zealand.'

He added to Sky News: 'It's really sad that he's gone too soon, but also the nature of how he's gone. The whole family's feeling devastated.' 

A 1996 magazine printed quotes from the sergeant in which he said: 'I've got this photo of me as a kid wearing a police helmet.  One of my uncles sent it over. I don't remember growing up wanting to be a policeman. But now that I am I wouldn't change it for anything.'

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he visited the family to pass on his condolences. Other tributes on social media said 'what a waste', 'you will be missed my friend', 'so sad, what a lovely man' and 'sleep well Maui'.

Community leader Donna Murray-Turner described the officer shot dead this morning as 'warm, intelligent and funny'.

She told MailOnline: 'He was a good person. He helped me in setting up stop and search workshops. I will work with anyone who wants to make change and he was one of those people.  I would just want his family to know he was loved by them and he was loved by members of the community.'

A friend who lives on the same street as the sergeant said: 'Matt was a lovely, lovely man. We are in shock.  'He was softly spoken and very kind. A wonderful neighbour. And he was so much into his rugby. We learned this morning about what had happened. Very shocking news.'

Glenn and Debbie Stobart lived next door to Sergeant Ratana in Coulsdon, south London, for a number of years before he moved to Worthing.  Mrs Stobart, a close friend, said: 'He was a fantastic man. He was always helping others. If you were concerned about anything he would answer your concerns.  He was so caring, funny, everyone knew him. He was a really big character.  The first day he moved to the area he came and knocked on the door and introduced himself and everyone got to know him from then. He absolutely loved his job and being a police officer. He was so proud to serve the community.  He was looking forward to retirement next year but was unsure what he was going to do with all that spare time, so he threw himself into the rugby even more. He loved helping the kids out and it gave him a real purpose.'

Holding back tears as she discussed his killer, she added: 'They should throw away the key.  How could someone get into a police station with a gun? It beggars belief.'   

Sergeant Ratana is the tenth police officer to have been killed in the line of duty in the past decade, with the last being Andrew Harper in Berkshire in August 2019.  PC Harper's widow Lissie Harper said that it was 'utterly devastating', adding: 'What is happening to our world?'

Friday's incident marks the first time a UK police officer has been shot dead on duty in eight years after Dale Cregan killed Greater Manchester Police officers Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone in September 2012.  Scotland Yard have not yet confirmed if he was on the radar of counter-terrorism police following the claims made by BBC News.  However, it is believed that he had been referred to the Prevent programme. The programme is a government-led multi-agency scheme, involving the Home Office, counter-terrorism police and other authorities, which aims to prevent vulnerable people being drawn into extremism.  He was identified over possible links to Right-wing and Islamic extremism but nothing was found to warrant a counter-terrorism investigation.  Shocked and tearful colleagues laid flowers throughout the day, with 11 police officers marching toward the custody centre at one point to leave floral tributes with a poem.  Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: 'My deepest condolences go to the family, friends and colleagues of the police officer who was killed in Croydon last night. We owe a huge debt to those who risk their own lives to keep us safe.'

Scotland Yard said no police firearms were discharged, and they were informing the officer's relatives and supporting them with specialist officers.  A number of policing colleagues changed their social media profile pictures to black, with a blue line, as a mark of respect to the officer, who had been in the police force for nearly 30 years.  His former girlfriend Claudia Lynn, who lived with the officer for six years, said he had come over from New Zealand and forged a career in the police. She said they split up four years ago after meeting in 2010. She is a former special constable.  She said: 'We moved down here together from London where we were living at the time. I wasn't in touch with him anymore but I had seen him around on the odd occasion.'

Met Police officer Stuart James tweeted: 'This morning my team and I responded to the worst possible radio transmission from custody, words and scenes I shall never forget.  'The unimaginable happened to our police family. We have lost not only a good skipper but also a real gentleman. One of the best. RIP brother.'

Community police officer Jacqueline Kufuor burst into tears after laying flowers outside the centre in tribute to her colleague. She said that the deceased officer was 'a lovely guy' and 'the nicest man I have ever met'.

She said: 'You never expect this to happen when you go to work. For him to have been in custody and for this to have happened, it is just so sad.'

She said: 'He was a very lovely man. He was such a nice man. When he sees you, he would just stand and talk to you. He would ask you about your job and how you’re are coping and how you are doing out there. So when I ever had issues, I would just talk to him.'

Neil John-Baptiste, 44, a recovery driver of Thornton Heath in south London, drove down to the centre to lay flowers. He said: 'I just think that a police officer has lost his life in the course of doing his duty.  I think it is really disheartening what happened here today. These are just flowers but it is a mark of respect. Things have got to change.'

Dame Cressida said Sgt Ratana was known as a 'big guy' with a 'big heart'.  She said: 'A lovely man, respected by his colleagues, officers, staff and of course by members of the public, including, I may say, suspects arrested or dealt with in custody.  He was very well known locally and he will be remembered so fondly in Croydon and missed there, as well as in the Met and in the rugby world.'

Dame Cressida said he leaves behind a partner and an adult son from a previous relationship.  She said he joined the Met in 1991, adding: 'He was a talented police officer, captain of his recruits training class.'

He first worked in Charring Cross before working in Hillingdon and Hackney.  She urged the public not to speculate about his death, saying: 'I do understand that there is great concern about how this happened, how this could have happened.  I want to reassure everyone the facts will be established, we owe that to Matt. We owe that to his family and of course we owe that to other police officers.  But we do need to give the investigators the space to do their job and I must say that speculation at this time is unhelpful and may even harm our efforts.'

Dame Cressida's New Zealand counterpart Andrew Coster wrote on Twitter: 'New Zealand Police today acknowledges the death of serving Met Police officer, and former New Zealand Police officer, Sergeant Matiu Ratana, known as Matt.  Sergeant Ratana was already an experienced officer in the UK when he joined New Zealand Police as part of the first British High Commission Wing, Wing 212, in 2003. He served in Auckland City and Counties Manukau until 2008, before returning to the UK.  As my counterpart Commissioner Cressida Dick of the Metropolitan Police has expressed this morning, policing is a family. While Sergeant Ratana spent most of his career in the UK, anyone who serves here will always be a part of our New Zealand Police whānau.  We send our condolences to his friends and family here and abroad, and his colleagues in the Metropolitan Police and across the UK who will be deeply feeling this loss today.'

New Zealand's PM Ms Ardern said: 'Incredibly sad to hear news this morning that a Metropolitan Police officer killed in the UK was Matiu Ratana, a former New Zealand Police officer.  Sergeant Ratana worked in Auckland City and Counties Manukau until 2008, before returning to the UK. To all Matiu's whanau across the world, we share your sorrow and have all our condolences.'

John Davies, a former colleague of Sgt Ratana, said he was a 'truly remarkable, strong and unique individual'.  Mr Davies, 58, worked with Sgt Ratana for the Metropolitan Police from 2002 to 2004.  He said: 'Matt and myself were both police officers on Hillingdon Borough, west London, and worked closely together for those years.  'I'd just like to say that he was a truly remarkable, strong and unique individual. He would have left an impression on all those he came into contact with.  He was a great guy and will be sorely missed.' He described Sgt Ratana as a 'proud Maori'.

Community police officer Jacqueline Kufuor said: 'Sgt Ratana was a lovely guy' and 'the nicest man I have ever met'.  She said: 'He was a very lovely man. He was such a nice man. When he sees you, he would just stand and talk to you.  He would ask you about your job and how you're coping and how you are doing out there. So when I ever had issues, I would just talk to him.'

A grieving friend said Sergeant Ratana left rugby training just hours before he was murdered. He described the victim as a 'leader amongst men.'  Paul, 27, who did not provide his last name, said the officer played as a prop for East Grinstead Rugby Club in Sussex and had been head coach for the last four years.  Speaking outside the detention centre on Friday, wearing a training top of the West Sussex team, he said his teammate was a 'giant of a man' who turned the side into a winning machine.  Paul, who works in recruitment, said: 'He was coaching the colts, then was head coach when it became available.  He was a leader amongst men, the team started winning nearly every game, it was definitely because of him, his never say die attitude to keep battling, that was just who he was and he instilled that in the team.  He played as a prop, he was a giant of a man.'

Speaking about his teammate, he became emotional before adding: 'We're all just devastated, it's all quite overwhelming, it's hard to believe what's happened.  He was close to retiring from the force. It's sad that the force are put in that position, they are just men and women doing their jobs. It's unfortunate because they're on the front line, it's bad, but no one deserves that.  I saw him last night, we trained with the team and he left training to come to his night shift.'

After moving to Worthing in West Sussex six years ago, Sergeant Ratana took over as head coach of the club, helping youngsters develop their game.  He had been an outstanding player himself, even turning out for now professional side London Irish among a host of other London clubs. He had learnt the game at Palmerston North Boys' High School, which has produced a number of All Blacks.  England Rugby's Twitter account read: 'Our thoughts and those of the entire rugby family are with the family and friends of Sergeant Matt Ratana.  Head coach at East Grinstead Rugby who gave so much to our sport.'

Three years after arriving in Britain he married Teresa Conway in Slough and the couple had a son, Luke, the following year.  They later separated and his ex-wife and son are thought to have emigrated to Australia. Friends said Sergeant Ratana had remained very close to Luke.  Sergeant Ratana sent a WhatsApp message to his players at East Grinstead rugby team at 1.34am this morning which read 'good session tonight team', reports suggest. He was shot less than an hour later.  A friend told the BBC: 'A few years ago I was experiencing financial problems. He came in one day and gave me 200 quid out of the blue, I said 'no no, I can't accept that' and gave it back to him. But the next day he wired it into my account. That's the sort of guy he was.'

Scotland Yard said it had referred the incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which will lead an independent investigation.  Speaking at the Home Office, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: 'I'm deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic killing of the officer in Croydon overnight.  All our thoughts are with the officer's family, friends and colleagues across the Metropolitan Police force, but also policing family across the country.  This is a sad day for our country as once again we see the tragic killing of a police officer in the line of duty as they're trying to protect us and keep us safe.  Later on today I'll be meeting with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to discuss the investigation that is currently taking place, and of course the Metropolitan Police Service now need the time and the space to get on with the inquiry that now needs to follow.'

IOPC Regional Director Sal Naseem yesterday said: 'Today a Metropolitan Police (MPS) officer has tragically died in the line of duty and we extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues and all of those affected by this shocking incident. The MPS is conducting a murder investigation into the officer's death.  A 23 year old man remains in a critical condition in hospital. When a member of the public dies or is seriously injured while in police custody the Independent Office for Police Conduct's (IOPC) role is to independently investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.  We began our investigation in the early hours of Friday 25 September and our investigators have been at Croydon Custody Centre in Windmill Road, south London, gathering evidence. Our investigators are also in the area where the man was detained gathering relevant CCTV evidence.  We will be looking at all of the police contact with the man from the time he was detained leading up to today's tragic incident. It is understandable there will be speculation and questions asked about how this incident unfolded and we are seeking answers. It is important that we independently establish the sequence of events.  Given the clear trauma suffered by those officers who were present during the incident, they have not yet provided their initial accounts. The work to obtain these will continue next week.  We have obtained CCTV from the custody centre and body worn video footage from the officers present. This will be reviewed and analysed over coming days.  What we have established is that the man was arrested for possession of Class B drugs with intent to supply and possession of ammunition. The man was handcuffed to the rear before being transported to Croydon Custody Suite in a police vehicle where he was escorted into the building. He remained handcuffed to the rear and seated in a holding area in the custody suite.  His handcuffs remained in place while officers prepared to search him using a metal detector. It is at the point that shots were fired resulting in the fatal injuries to the officer and critical injuries to the man. A non-police issue firearm, which appears to be a revolver has been recovered from the scene. Further ballistic work will be required.  The MPS is conducting a separate murder investigation into the death of its officer, and we are working to ensure our investigation does not impact its enquiries.'

Leroy Logan, a former Metropolitan Police superintendent, said there were a number of questions to be answered around the circumstances which led to the shooting of an officer at a police station.  He told BBC News: 'The first thing you want to know is how did this happen?  How did that person come to be in the station whether it's in the yard or the building itself and be able to produce a weapon, whether it's on them at the time.  It depends on the calibre of the weapon, because obviously if it's a small weapon and it can be easily in that person's clothing, then obviously it brings another question on how thoroughly that person was searched, if at all.  Those are the things the department for professional standards will look at and the Independent Office for Police Conduct as well as the investigating officers who will have to look at this thing thoroughly.  Because there's a lot of learning and obviously there's a lot of pain for the family and friends and colleagues of that officer who has fallen in the line of duty.'

Speaking to BBC News, former Metropolitan Police superintendent Mr Logan said the procedure followed will depend on the circumstances in which police came into contact with a suspect.  He said: 'It depends if that person was arrested outside the police station and has been transported in a vehicle. Invariably these officers will search that individual to make sure they haven't got anything that can harm other people or themselves.  Or try and hide any material whether it's drugs or any sort of articles that they shouldn't have.  That's standard procedure and of course that's for security reasons just in case they have got a weapon.  There are circumstances where someone might turn up at the custody suite area itself in the reception and are led straight through.  So not knowing all of the details, how this person got into the secure area of the station, whether it's outside the building or in the yard or whatever, we just need to try and find out what's happened because the details are very, very scant.'

Former Metropolian Police officer Dal Babu told LBC Radio: 'A full body search, you'd expect that to take place at the time of the arrest.  The once they're in the police station you might do a more thorough search, the custody officer may authorise a strip search, and that's when you may find other weapons on individuals.  For safety purposes officers are advised to carry out the search at the time of the arrest.  Officers are having to travel some significant distances to take prisoners to custody suites.'

Steve Reed, Labour MP for Croydon North, said his thoughts were with the officer's family and colleagues.  He tweeted: 'All of us in Croydon are in shock at this heart-breaking tragic news.'

Mr Reed, 46, left a floral tribute at the scene with party chair Mohammed Islam, 46.  Mr Islam was 'deeply touched' by the incident as his son Shakz, 23, is waiting for his start date to become a police officer covering Westminster, Fulham and Chelsea.  He said: 'This is why I am really, really touched by what has happened. It's very shocking and devastating news as I

99

Articles / Princess Anne didn't go for a pretty floral face mask like Kate Middleton and...

« on: September 17, 2020, 11:14:30 AM »

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/princess-anne-impresses-fans-best-22688501?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Royalnews7&utm_campaign=royals_newsletter&ccid=2369561
Princess Anne impresses fans with 'best mask they've ever seen'

Princess Anne didn't go for a pretty floral face mask like Kate Middleton and Camilla, instead going all out with a very jazzy personalised number

By Zoe Forsey Lifestyle Editor

12:04, 16 SEP 2020

Princess Anne led by example as she donned a face mask for her latest engagement, and fans were very impressed with the royal design.  The Queen's daughter visited Citizens Advice Harlow, which she is patron of, to chat to staff and members.  She learnt about how they are working with the community amid the coronavirus pandemic and presented dedicated members with certificates.  In keeping with the government's guidelines, the Princess Royal wore a face mask for the occasion, opting for a white covering with her royal cypher embroidered on it.  All members of the royal family have cyphers, which they use on their stationary and in other official situations.  Fans loved her personalised mask and were quick to comment on social media.  One wrote: "That’s the best looking mask I’ve ever seen!"

Another added: "She’s always had sass and is so cool" and a third wrote: "I like that. Looks elegant."

We've now seen lots of members of the royal family wearing face masks, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Camilla, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  However they have opted for less royal designs, either picking floral or colourful numbers.  But Anne isn't the first person to use her cypher to accessories, and Camilla bought Kate a charm bracelet featuring hers when she joined the royal family.  The gold bracelet, which was a wedding present, has a gold disc engraved with a C for Catherine and a coronet on one side, and a crown and C for Camilla on the other.  As well as their own individual designs, married couples have given a joint design which they use on their joint correspondance.  However Meghan and Harry were heavily criticised earlier this year when they used theirs in a heartfelt letter to a charity despite quitting the royal family.  Their letter to sports charity StreetGames, which helps young people in disadvantaged areas, left many fans fuming.  One person commented: "They need to take that crown out of that M logo."

However other fans rushed to Meghan and Harry's defence, and one commented: "She’s still royal, a Duchess and married to the son of a future king. There’s no reason for the coronet to be removed."

Some also pointed out that Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson continued to use their cyphers after they divorced Charles and Andrew, meaning they were officially no longer royal.

100

Articles / Rohnert Park teen last seen a decade ago, adoptive parents charged with abuse

« on: September 09, 2020, 02:14:52 PM »

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/rohnert-park-teen-last-seen-a-decade-ago-adoptive-parents-charged-with-abu/?sba=AAS

Rohnert Park teen last seen a decade ago, adoptive parents charged with abuse

JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
September 1, 2020

Rohnert Park police are searching for an 18-year-old girl not seen for nearly a decade, her disappearance only discovered recently when her adoptive parents came under investigation for allegedly abusing her two younger siblings.  Kaya Centeno’s younger sister and brother, ages 17 and 15, told police she was between 8 and 12 years old when they last saw her, police said. The younger children remained living with the couple, Jose and Gina Centeno of Rohnert Park, and endured years of abuse, according to police.  The Centanos were arrested Aug. 19 and booked into the Sonoma County Jail on $18 million bail. They have been charged with felony torture and other crimes, according to the 14-count complaint filed Aug. 20 in Sonoma County Superior Court.  Jose Centeno, 53, was also charged with an additional nine felony crimes for his suspected sexual abuse of the 17-year-old girl, who is referred to as Jane Doe #1 in the complaint. They face life sentences if convicted.  At the center of the case is the mystery of Kaya Centeno, who attended John Reed Elementary School until second grade, when she was taken out of school to be homeschooled, police said.  Rohnert Park police Sgt. Keith Astley said he hopes members of the public will come forward with information about her and help pinpoint a more precise time window for when she was last seen.  “We want to find Kaya,” Astley said. “We want to hear from anybody who knows Kaya. Have they seen Kaya? When was the last time they saw Kaya? Kaya was in the household and then she was not.”

Police worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which developed a photo of what she may look like today.  The troubling allegations involving the Centenos and the abuse of their children surfaced in July when Mexican authorities contacted Sonoma County child protective services about the two teens. They had been sent out of the country about 1.5 years ago by the Centenos to live with extended family, police said.  Neighbors of the relatives had called Mexican police with concerns about the two American children, who then told authorities about the abuse, according to Astley.  The Centenos had stayed behind in Sonoma County and were estranged, the sergeant said. They adopted five children in all, a set of three siblings and years later twins. Gina Centeno remained in the family’s Rohnert Park home with the twins, the sergeant said.  Gina and Jose Centeno are charged with felony kidnapping of the three older teens stemming from an allegation they concealed them to access adoption assistance funding, according to the complaint.  Kaya Centeno’s siblings were given an explanation for their sister’s absence, which Astley said he would not yet disclose because the investigation was still in an early stage.  Detectives found evidence at the Centenos’ C Section home "to corroborate the victims’ statements about the abuse,“ police said in a statement.

Astley said he’s not aware of any reports of abuse or other issues with the Rohnert Park family before police were contacted by Mexican authorities. Detectives are investigating whether the two twins have been the victims of abuse as well, Astley said.  Jose and Gina Centeno return to court Oct. 5 for a plea hearing, and they remain in jail without bail.  “We don’t know where Kaya is, and we want to find her,” Astley said.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the Rohnert Park Public Safety Department at 707-584-2612.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

101

Articles / The proof China lied about coronavirus? British grandfather, 84, who died ....

« on: September 09, 2020, 01:59:21 PM »

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8711951/Grandfather-84-NEVER-left-UK-earliest-known-fatality-coronavirus-outside-China.html

The proof China lied about coronavirus? British grandfather, 84, who died from Covid-19 caught it in December three days BEFORE Beijing reported outbreak to the WHO

    An 84-year-old British man died at the end of January from Covid-19, despite never having left the UK
    Peter Attwood caught the virus in December, despite China not registering its first case until late December
    Mr Attwood's daughter Jane Buckland, 46, said he was admitted to hospital on January 7 with a bad cough
    His case has blown apart China's claims that the virus first spread through the city of Wuhan in late December
    Do YOU know anyone now thought to have died from coronavirus in January? Contact: tips@dailymail.com

By Danyal Hussain and Henry Martin For Mailonline and Lizzie Deane For The Daily Mail

Published: 01:57, 9 September 2020 | Updated: 13:02, 9 September 2020

China's claims that the coronavirus first emerged in the country in late December have been blown apart after a post-mortem found that an 84-year-old man in Britain died of the virus in January following a three-week battle with symptoms of the illness.  Beijing has long claimed the virus was first recorded in a wet market in Wuhan just before Christmas, with the Chinese government not reporting it to the World Health Organisation until December 31.  However, the death of Peter Attwood, 84, from Chatham, Kent, has raised new questions about an alleged Chinese cover-up after it emerged he had symptoms of the virus on December 28, with his daughter falling ill two weeks earlier.  Jane Buckland, 46, says her father's death suggests the virus could have been spreading in Britain as early as November and added: 'If China hadn't lied to the rest of the world and kept this hidden for so long, it could have saved countless lives.'

Tory former leader Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline: 'This shows that there has been a major cover up in China over this from the word go.  There needs now to be a full investigation both into the role of China in the covering up of this virus and its human to human transfer capabilities, and questions need to asked about an inquiry into the behaviour of the WHO.  Once they knew there was a problem why didn't they go public with it?'

Initially, the virus was thought to have come from bats sold at a wet market in Wuhan, before scientists and politicians most notably US President Donald Trump accused the Chinese government of hiding the fact that it came from a Wuhan Virology lab.  Scientists researching the genetic make-up of the virus claim it must have been made in a laboratory as its coding is drastically different to even its closest naturally-occurring relatives.  Now, Mr Attwood's death will increase pressure on China over the origins of the pandemic, which has killed millions of people around the world.  It will also raise more questions for the WHO, which has been accused of defending and supporting China's alleged cover-up of the origins of the outbreak.  WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously come under fire for praising China for its 'transparency' early in the outbreak.  He has also faced accusation of bias, after he was elected to lead the WHO in 2017 amid allegations of heavy lobbying by Chinese diplomats.  The 84-year-old, who never left the UK, died on January 30 more than a month before what was previously thought to be the UK's first virus death on March 5.  Doctors had been mystified by his illness, originally believing he may have died of asbestosis, a lung condition caused by working around asbestos.  Deaths from the illness have to be referred to a coroner.  However, his post-mortem instead detected coronavirus in his lung tissue, leading the Kent coroner to record his cause of death as 'Covid-19 infection and bronchopneumonia'.

Jane believes she fell ill with coronavirus symptoms on December 15, before her father developed a dry cough on December 28 just one week after cases of the virus were first recorded in Wuhan, according to the Chinese government.  He was admitted to hospital on January 7 with a bad cough before dying a few weeks later, making him the first person outside of China to die of the virus.   Mr Attwood's case will now bolster claims from critics of Beijing who believe the virus may have spread there as early as October.   The coronavirus was officially identified by the WHO on January 8 and explained why some 41 people in Wuhan had fallen ill with pneumonia with an unknown cause.  China recorded its first death on January 11, believed to be linked to a wet market in Wuhan, the day before the genetic sequence for the coronavirus was made available for scientists globally.  The first reported coronavirus death in Europe was not recorded until February 15, after an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in France.  In the UK, the first death was not confirmed until March 5, only a few days before a global pandemic was declared on March 11.  The first wave of reported cases in Wuhan were linked to the wet market, fuelling the theory.  However, it later emerged that the Wuhan wet market was a 'victim' of coronavirus rather than the cause.  Genetic evidence confirmed that the virus originated in Chinese bats before it jumped to humans via an 'intermediary animal', but the exact location of the transition is unknown.  This has led to accusations against the Chinese government that the virus had originated in a lab and had spread to the population through an accidental leak or, as some conspiracy theorists claim, deliberate release.  US president Donald Trump previously said he'd seen evidence to prove it started in a virology lab, though China insist the theory isn't true.  In May, a respected author and China expert claimed coronavirus must have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory not from wildlife wet markets.  'The argument that the coronavirus emerged from the South China Seafood market just no longer stacks up,' Professor Clive Hamilton told Sky News on Sunday night.  Professor Hamilton said the earliest cases of COVID-19 were in people who had no contact with the Wuhan wet market,  'This has been demonstrated by top quality studies,' he said. 

'So the idea that it originated in December sometime, usually late December, in this market, simply doesn't stack up.  The only other plausible explanation was that it was a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.'   

The hypothesis came from Chinese scientists themselves and was all over the internet before disappearing, Professor Hamilton said.  Internet uses all over China had even searched for the woman thought to be patient zero who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and 'seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet', he said.

Previously, an analysis of private cellphone location data also allegedly showed that the Wuhan Institute of Virology shut down from October 7 to October 24, and this may indicate a 'hazardous event' sometime between October 6 and October 11.  Speaking about her father's death, Jane said she received an email from Kent coroner Bina Patel last Thursday saying coronavirus had been found in his lung tissue during the post mortem.  She said: 'The doctors did every test under the sun but couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.  His blood tests showed a high level of infection but they had no idea what it was.  He died on January 30 and the provisional death certificate said it was heart failure and pneumonia.  The virus was obviously running rampant in this country back in December or maybe even earlier.  China was covering it up from the beginning.  It's no wonder so many people in this country ended up dying from it. How many lives could have been saved if we'd known what was really going on?  My dad was elderly and had an underlying heart condition, so he would have been shielding.'

University of East Anglia Professor of Medicine Paul Hunter said of Peter's case: 'This is a remarkable development because it shows there was some virus transmission in the UK before anyone realised.'

A Government spokesman said: 'Every death is a tragedy. There is no evidence that there was sustained transmission within the community in January 2020.  We acted swiftly to curb coronavirus and at all times we have been guided by the best available evidence to deliver a strategy designed to protect the NHS and save lives.'

The story comes after speculation that China's government tried to mask the scale of coronavirus and its dangers in its early days of discovery, including silencing whistleblowers.  Various aspects of Beijing's information has been questioned and even discredited.  China has reported relatively low numbers of cases and deaths 85,146  and 4,634 despite it having no warning of the coronavirus, as other countries did.  The first confirmed cases emerged there weeks before it did in any other nation and months before the crisis really hit Europe and America, going by official data alone.  Daily confirmed cases never reached more than 4,000 and deaths 150, despite there being no measures in place to stop the coronavirus spread until late January.  Scientists at Imperial College London estimated up to 4,500 patients in China may have caught the coronavirus by mid-January, when only 48 cases had officially been reported.  Health chiefs first alerted the WHO in late December. But symptoms of the coronavirus were being detected as early as October.  French athletes think they caught Covid-19 while competing in the World Military Games, held in Wuhan, China.  Several fell ill with bad flu-like symptoms during the event, which took place over nine days from October 18.  'A lot of athletes at the World Military Games were very ill,' said Elodie Clouvel, a world champion modern pentathlete. 

This followed the revelation that a fishmonger treated in a Paris hospital for suspected pneumonia on December 27 had been confirmed as a victim of the new virus. He was baffled since he had not travelled abroad.  China notified the disease to the World Health Organisation four days after the Frenchman was in hospital, on December 31, and did not put Wuhan into lockdown for a further 24 days.  Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, is a transport hub. Over three crucial months from December, there were 7,530 flights between there and other parts of China, carrying more than one million passengers and ten direct flights to the UK.  Yet even in January, Chinese leaders prevented expert outside teams from investigating the virus, silenced doctors trying to warn citizens and refused to admit there was human transmission until January 20.  The first case of someone in China suffering from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, can be traced back to November 17, according to government data seen by the South China Morning Post but not publically available.  The paper reported from November 17, one to five new cases were reported each day, reaching 381 on January 1.  However, the WHO was only notified of 41 hospitalised patients, it appears.  Only a small minority of people who catch the coronavirus get severely sick with it, either needing hospital care or dying. This alone suggests the coronavirus was spreading several weeks in China before the first patient succumbed to it.  And Mr Atwood's case suggests patients both in China and globally may have died of the coronavirus but doctor's thought their cause of death was something else because they did not know about Covid-19.  It echoes the stories of other British people who are of the belief they have already had the coronavirus in 2019.  Jane Hall, who sings in the Voice of Yorkshire choir and All Together Now community choir, said friends in both groups had fallen ill in January with one member experiencing symptoms consistent with Covid-19 as early as late December.  The first singer to become ill was the partner of a businessman who had returned from a trip to Wuhan in mid-December and developed a hacking cough.  Miss Hall, from Bradford, in West Yorkshire, said: 'My friend from the choir became ill mid-January. Then my best friend, Christine, became ill, and I became ill the first weekend of February.  I had a throat that felt like I had swallowed broken glass, a high temperature, headaches I was totally fatigued I slept for two whole days which was totally unlike me. I had a high temperature and a dry, unproductive cough. It was like breathing through treacle I was really struggling to breathe.'

Juanita Kearns, who runs the Bulls Head pub in Baildon, just north of central Bradford, where the Altogether Now choir go after their weekly practice, collapsed towards the end of January, barely able to breathe. Her doctor called an ambulance.  She told the BBC: 'My doctor asked if I'd been to China, the ambulance people asked if I'd been to China and the hospital asked me the same. I said no, and explained again about being a pub landlady. They said I appeared to have a lung condition and sent me home.'

It can take up to 14 days for someone to show symptoms of the coronavirus a cough, fever and loss of taste and smell after being infected. Before Covid-19 was recognised, many may have thought this was just a common cold or the flu.  It can then take up to another week for a person to get so severely sick they need to go to hospital.   

CHINA'S COVID-19 'COVER-UP'

*  China's President Xi Jinping knew about the coronavirus on January 7 yet China only shut down the epicentre of the outbreak, Hubei province, on January 23, after 5million people had left to travel through China and the world

*  China has since admitted destroying early samples of coronavirus in January, but claims it was acting in the interests of public health and denies stonewalling sample requests from other countries

*  The US has accused China of concealing the severity of the virus, and hoarding medical supplies while the world was still unaware of the threat

*  China is also accused of silencing doctors, making whistleblowers 'disappear', hiding the true death toll, suppressing information and censoring news reports during the early stages of the outbreak, and pressuring the World Health Organisation to delay public warnings and downplay the risks of the epidemic

*  A German intelligence report claims President Xi personally asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about human-to-human transmission and delay a pandemic warning

*  The report claims China's information policy cost the world four to six weeks of vital time needed to fight the virus

*  China filed a patent for the drug Remdesivir, seen as one of the best potential weapons against COVID-19, the day after it finally confirmed human transmission of the disease. The application was made by Wuhan Institute of Virology, the top-secret bio-laboratory at the centre of concerns about a possible leak of the disease from its research on bats, and the country’s Military Medicine Institute

*  China has strenuously denied accusations of a cover up, insisting it has always shared information with the WHO and other countries in a timely manner

Did China hide when Covid outbreak REALLY started? New details throw doubt on State's claim the disease broke out of a Wuhan wet market and WASN'T man-made in a lab

The death of Peter Attwood, 84, in Chatham, Kent in January has raised new questions over the origins of the coronavirus.  China has long insisted the virus began spreading from a wet market in Wuhan in late December, before a cluster of cases were identified and reported to the WHO in December 31.  However, a post-mortem has now revealed that Mr Attwood died of the virus on January 30, with his daughter saying she had symptoms as early as December 15.  Beijing is now, once again, facing claims it lied and covered-up the spread of the virus, with the latest revelation set to increase pressure on both China and the WHO.  It will also lead to more questions on the origins of the virus, with several scientists insisting the virus must have been man-made in a laboratory. 

DECEMBER 15: Jane Buckland, 46, comes down with symptoms of coronavirus, though she assumes it's just a bad cold.

DECEMBER 21: The first reports of a pneumonia-like illness are recorded in China.

DECEMBER 28: Jane's father Peter Attwood, 84, develops a dry cough just days after mixing with Jane and other family members over Christmas.

DECEMBER 31: China alerts the World Health Organisation of a cluster of cases in Wuhan.

JANUARY 2: Jane's asthmatic daughter Megan, 18, has difficulty breathing.

JANUARY 7: Peter is admitted to hospital with a bad cough and breathing issues.

JANUARY 11: A Chinese man, 61, becomes the first person to die of the new virus, thought to have come from a Wuhan wet market.

JANUARY 30: Peter dies, with doctors attributing his death to heart failure and pneumonia.

JANUARY 31: The first two official cases of coronavirus are recorded in the UK.

FEBRUARY 15: As cases begin to rise in the UK, the first reported coronavirus death in Europe after 80-year-old Chinese tourist dies in France.

FEBRUARY 28: The first British victim dies, quarantined on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

MARCH 5: The first coronavirus death in the UK is recorded.

MARCH 11: The World Health Organisation finally declares a pandemic.

MARCH 23: Boris Johnson unveils a UK lockdown to tackle the spread of the virus.

SEPTEMBER 3: Kent coroner Bina Patel tells Jane her father Peter died on January 30 of coronavirus.

How Paul Attwood's death raises new questions about Beijing's coronavirus cover-up

Paul Attwood's illness in December and his subsequent death do not chime with the international timeline of how Covid-19 spread around the world, because China did not officially report the illness until December 31, at which time it was thought to still be confined to Wuhan.  Since the pandemic spread worldwide, reports and theories have emerged surrounding China's honesty about the situation.  A timeline shows how China's chain of events and Mr Attwood's case do not line up:

December 15, 2019: British woman Jane Attwood comes down with Covid symptoms, but dismisses it as a bad cold. She continues to attend Christmas parties and care for her elderly parents.

Late December: Jane’s 84-year-old father, Paul Attwood, from Chatham, Kent, is thought to have caught the coronavirus from her. He developed a dry cough on December 28 and his symptoms continue to worsen.

December 31: The first cases of the coronavirus were flagged to the World Health Organisation by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, on December 31, which is when it became public.  At the time, officials in China only reported a cluster of people who had pneumonia with an unknown cause the coronavirus had not been discovered. Around 44 cases of the mystery illness had been detected in the month of December, which does not include people who were not seriously unwell and in hospital.

January 7: Mr Atwood is taken to a Kent hospital because he is struggling to breathe.

January 8, 2020: It was discovered the mystery cases of pneumonia in China was caused by a new coronavirus.

The official story has been that the Covid-19 virus jumped from an animal - thought to be a pangolin - to humans at Hunan Seafood Market in Wuhan city.

January 9: Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported the outbreak's first death - a 61-year-old man.

January 12: Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a leading microbiologist, claims he alerted Chinese authorities the coronavirus could spread between humans on January 12 after diagnosing a family of seven in Shenzhen, 700 miles from Wuhan.  But his warnings were not made public until January 19 due to a ‘cover up’ according to a BBC Panorama documentary about China’s sluggish early response to the pandemic.

January 13: The first case was diagnosed outside of China a national who had been on holiday in Thailand. She had been quarantined there on January 8.

January 14: The WHO said there was 'limited' human-to-human transmission of the, two days before it said there was 'no clear evidence of human to human transmission'.  There had been warnings from other doctors that spread among humans was occurring and claims from a German intelligence report that China’s President Xi Jinping personally asked WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to hold back information about human-to-human transmission and delay a pandemic warning.

January 23: Despite China’s President Xi Jinping knowing about this new coronavirus, and being stung by the previous epidemic caused by a related coronavirus called SARS, it took several days for action to be taken in China.  It wasn’t until January 23 that Wuhan was placed under lockdown, after millions had travelled two and from the city for Lunar New Year celebrations.

January 20: China’s National Health Commission said human to human transmission was ‘affirmative’ after cases cropped up in healthcare workers.

January 22: The WHO finally issued a statement on January 22 saying that evidence suggested human-to-human transmission in Wuhan but that more investigation was needed. By this point, the first cases had been reported by Japan (January 16), the US and South Korea (20), Taiwan (21), Macau and Hong Kong (22).

January 24: France informed WHO of three cases of novel coronavirus, all of whom had travelled from Wuhan, the first confirmed cases in Europe.

January 30: Mr Attwood, from Chatham, Kent, died on January 30 more than a month before what was previously thought to be the UK's first virus death on March 2.  The WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, by which point 22 countries had reported cases.

JANUARY 31: Two Chinese tourists from Wuhan are diagnosed with Covid-19 in York, England. They were initially thought to be the first coronavirus cases in the UK.

February: Wuhan Institute of Virology filed a patent for the drug Remdesivir, seen as one of the best potential weapons against Covid-19. That’s before scientists had even acknowledged the experimental drug as a potential to treat Covid-19 patients. The Institute found the drug inhibited the virus in lab tests.

February 1: First death of Covid-19 is recorded outside China in the Philippines.

February 6: Stephen Walsh, from Brighton, becomes the UK’s third confirmed case. He caught it in Singapore and gave it to others on ski trip. Public Health England traced people he had been in contact with in the UK.

February 15: The first reported coronavirus death in Europe was an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who died in France.

February 16: US Senator Tom Cotton becomes the first high-profile US politician to raise the possibility that the coronavirus 'originated'— or, presumably, was created—in a lab in Wuhan.

February 25: Cases of Covid-19 outside China exceeded those within.

February 28: The first British victim dies on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship which suffered an outbreak infecting 700 people.

March 5: The first death is confirmed in the UK as diagnosed cases of Covid-19 begin to surge.

March 11: WHO states Covid-19 as a pandemic.

March 23: Lockdown is enforced in the UK due to rising infections. It is not clear exactly how many people had caught the virus due to limits on testing.

April: Various reports continue to claim the coronavirus escaped a laboratory in Wuhan. However, there is no solid evidence of any kind that the coronavirus was released accidentally from a lab.

May 3: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that there was 'enormous evidence' that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.   Pompeo said on ABC's This Week: 'I think the whole world can see now. Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,' he added.

'These are not the first times that we've had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab.'

July: An investigation by the Sunday Times found a virus 96 per cent identical to the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was found in an abandoned mine in China seven years ago. The bat-infested copper mine in Mojiang, western China, was home to a coronavirus that left six adult men sick with pneumonia and three of them dead.   That virus, named RaBtCoV/4991 at the time, now appears to be the closest relative to SARS-Cov-2, which is causing Covid.  But Chinese researchers do not seem to have been forthcoming about the fact they found such a similar virus almost a decade ago in 2012, and especially not that it killed three men when it was discovered.

September 3: Kent coroner Bina Patel tells Jane Atwood her father died from Covid-19 back in January.

102

Articles / "Handing back our adopted children was the most traumatic day of our lives"

« on: September 05, 2020, 12:58:36 PM »

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/16174206.handing-back-adopted-children-traumatic-day-lives/

24th April 2018
"Handing back our adopted children was the most traumatic day of our lives"
By Maxine Gordon

What happens when adoptions break down? York's Catherine Adamson shares her heartbreaking story

CATHERINE Adamson's happiest day was when the two young children she was adopting moved into her house in York.  Her saddest day came just four months later, when the children moved out after the adoption failed.  "It took me six weeks to leave the house after the children left. The day they left was the most traumatic day of our lives," says Catherine, 51, who is married to Bill.

This all happened four years ago, but the pain is still raw. As Catherine tells her story, over a cup of coffee at her home off Huntington Road, she is in tears.   She has decided to share her story and speak out about what the authorities term "adoption disruption" to highlight the issue and to raise money for charities that support young people in need: The Island and SASH.  She is aware that failed adoption is taboo subject but wants people to be aware that it does happen. She says figures are vague, but one report suggests as many as one in five adoptions are "disrupted" in the UK. And she wants to make the case for more resources to support children and families following adoption.  Catherine and Bill applied for adoption after failing to conceive. "I met Bill when I was 40," says Catherine, who runs her own business, Kaleidoscope Virtual Assistant Services. "We tried to have children, but wanting to conceive had its ups and downs. We considered IVF but that didn't feel right when there were so many children needing homes already.  So we went down the adoption route. It took us two years to get approval which is as it should be."

The couple were approved for adoption in September 2013 and just four months later were matched with two young siblings, who were under the care of a local authority outside of York and North Yorkshire. It was this authority and its social workers that worked with the family in the aftermath.  "It was so exciting," recalls Catherine. "Everything was so positive. We bought this house because we were adopting and needed something bigger, more of a family home. You have to start making changes to your life like when you are having a baby. You need to, you want to."

Catherine smiles at the happy memory of those early days. "We were so hopeful; I'd always wanted children and assumed I'd have them.  The children were excited. We had a two-week introductory period, when they came back to have tea then we'd take them back to their foster home."

The day they moved in was a "whoosh of emotions" says Catherine. "We were euphoric about things; about our hopes and our future and what we were going to be doing."

But that high soon turned to a low. Catherine says the local authority's social services did not reveal the full background story of the children, and when problems arose she felt left to struggle on alone, without support.  She said: "I felt they placed the children with us and ran for the hills. I felt abandoned. None of it was the children's fault. Their behaviour is a result of their life experience. They are not responsible for anything to do with the breakdown."

Ultimately, Catherine feels let down by the system: "There is a lack of support, energy and finance to do anything to help."

She adds: "I was spinning into a point of total despair and all the social workers would say was: 'don't worry, you are doing a fantastic job'. There was no recognition, no offer of support. What me and the children needed was just dismissed."

After four months, she and Bill made the heartbreaking decision to return the children to the care of the original local authority and their previous foster parents.  She said it was a devastating outcome for all of them. "You don't take them on a trial basis. But I was slowly day by day, hour by hour, becoming less well. I was in post-adoption depression. I was in a state physically, emotionally and mentally, and I just could not cope. You are in such conflict; you want these children so much and love them, but it is making you so ill. What do you do?"

Catherine says Bill was "her rock" throughout. "Thank God I have a strong marriage," she says.

"It took me six months to leave the house and I didn't make eye contact with anybody.  I felt judged; I felt people would think I was a bad mother who could not look after her children and let those children down.  No one I have ever spoken to has judged me. But no one can judge you harder than you judge yourself.  I want other people going through a difficult adoption to know they are not alone."

This summer, she will walk and wild camp 109 miles along the Cleveland Way to raise money for vulnerable children. She hopes to raise £10,000 to be split equally between The Island, which supports young people aged between eight and 13 in York who are struggling to cope at home, at school, or in the wider community, and SASH, which works to prevent youth homelessness in York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire.   As part of the fundraising drive, she is selling her wedding dress too. It cost £1,100 new, and Catherine would like to sell it for £400. "It is a beautiful dress, but I have no reason to keep it. It is a halter-neck and would fit a curvy size 14-16."

She is also organising a Race Night at Haxby Sports Bar on May 4, and a coffee morning to boost funds.  She says: “I can’t do anything now for the children we lost, but I want to try and make a difference to the lives of other children and young people. I want to try to prevent what happened to our children from happening again.”

About the charities:  SASH (sash-uk.org.uk) runs supported lodgings schemes in North and East Yorkshire, to help young people develop the skills they need to live on their own and provides emergency overnight accommodation for young people during a crisis. By providing support during a time of need, the charity hopes to break a vicious circle of unemployment and homelessness.  The Island (theislandyork.org) provides young people with fully-trained volunteer mentors, who provide one-to-one support to young people in need of support over 12 months.

To find our more and donate, visit Catherine's fundraising page at: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/CatherineAdamson

For details of support groups, visit adoptiondisruptionuk.com

103

Articles / Scandal of the babies parents won't adopt because they're called Chrystal ....

« on: September 05, 2020, 12:34:32 PM »

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140586/Scandal-babies-parents-wont-adopt-theyre-called-Chrystal-Chardonnay.html

Scandal of the babies parents won't adopt because they're called Chrystal and Chardonnay and the social workers who won't let them change their names

By Kate Gallagher

Published: 01:21, 7 May 2012 | Updated: 11:09, 7 May 2012

A whistleblower reveals a shocking new twist to Britain's adoption shambles - and why social workers, obsessed with the rights of dysfunctional birth families, refuse to do anything about it.  Sitting on a Winnie The Pooh blanket, a baby girl waves her chubby arms with joy as she attempts to stack up some wooden bricks, chuckling each time they fall down.  At less than a year, she would be the perfect child for any couple unable to have a baby of their own. You would also assume her time on the adoption register would be short.  But instead of a loving home and the prospect of a good start in life, it’s highly likely she will languish in the care system for some time to come.  The reason?

Well, unfortunately she’s called Chardonnay as opposed to, say, Charlotte and for this reason she will struggle to be placed.  It might sound like a joke, but as someone who has worked for one county’s adoption system for the past two years, I can tell you that it’s far from a funny situation. As a member of an adoption board that approves adoptive parents and the children who are adopted, I have signed a confidentiality agreement to protect the identity of the children involved.  That's why I'm using a pseudonym and have changed some of the names involved.  But I feel duty-bound to dispel the myth that there are only a handful of babies available for adoption and droves of parents waiting and willing to take them and to expose how a misguided system is failing vulnerable children.  From what I have witnessed, our adoption system is in crisis. At the heart of the problem?

A toxic combination of old-fashioned British snobbery, and a political correctness that prizes the feelings of the birth parents above the well-being of the children it’s supposed to be helping.  Since the case of Baby P, who was killed by his mother’s boyfriend in 2007, the number of children taken into care has spiralled, in an attempt to prevent a repeat of that tragedy.  As a result, the number of children available for adoption has also shot up.  For example, my county has around 125 children, 60 of them under two, who need to be adopted and just 15 couples in the pipeline prepared to adopt a massive shortfall, and a picture that is reflected all over Britain.  The situation reminds me of two conveyor belts: one moving fast with ever-more children being added to it, the other running alongside very slowly and carrying only a trickle of would-be parents.  Without a doubt, one of the issues stemming the flow of would-be adoptive parents is class.  I always feel sorry for potential adopters, those hard-working and educated people, with their good intentions and bright smiles, who think they will get the poor orphan girl they read about in the paper whose parents died in a crash on the M25, or the cute baby boy abandoned in the loo at Heathrow when he was two minutes old. Those are real cases, but they are very rare.  The majority of adoption cases are a much more complicated business.  Just as last summer’s riots shone a light on Britain’s predominantly unemployed underclass, so does the adoption process except that because it’s so secret, only a very few people witness it.  The reality is that most children up for adoption, even babies, come from dire backgrounds, where it’s highly likely Dad has been in prison and Mum was addicted to heaven knows what illegal substances and working as a prostitute.  And while some adopted children will go on to have behavioural problems because of their poor start in life, there are still many successful adoptions that take place.  But, unfortunately, the names of these blameless children make their less-than-middle-class backgrounds all too obvious. And most prospective parents don’t want to adopt children who are named after someone’s favourite celebrity or tipple.  For some reason there is currently a fashion, among those whose children are forcibly removed, for calling little girls after drinks hence two recent babies called Chardonnay and Champagne. There is also a tendency to name girls after jewels, though often misspelt: Rubie, Emmarald, Jayde, Chrystal.  And there are those birth parents who think, why ruin your child’s future with just one dreadful name when you can wallop them straight into the gutter of life with two?

So we on the adoption board who are trying to place these children in loving homes are confronted with Gemma-Mai, Courtney-Mai, Alexia-Mai, Lily-Mai, Shania-Rae and so on, names which will mark them out for their whole lives as members of a peculiarly British underclass. Simply put, the children’s names do not fit with the social demographic of the people coming forward to give them homes.  You might think a simple, and obvious, solution would be for adoptive parents to change the child’s name. After all, under-twos are still young enough to adapt to a new identity and will have no memory of their birth name.  But in the past few years it has become standard practice for social workers to recommend that the birth name be retained, a suggestion which is then rubber-stamped by the judge at adoption hearings.  Changing the name is something adoptive parents almost always want to do, especially if they already have birth children of their own. Naturally you want a new child to blend in with your existing family but will Chardonnay ever fit in with Henry, James and William?

No.  A good friend adopted a beautiful little girl but was unhappy with her first name, even worse than those listed above, and she knew it was also the name of the birth mother’s psychiatric nurse.  She said: ‘We adopted her so now she’s our child, but another woman chose that name and it’s awful. It’s also a constant reminder that the birth mother had mental health problems. Surely the least they could do for adoptive parents is allow them to choose a fresh name?’

In her case, the social workers said that changing the name would be ‘a loss of the child’s family identity’.  The proud family identity, presumably, which turned out three generations of career criminals.  It might sound flippant, but I honestly think there would be many more adoptive parents if they were allowed to change the baby’s name.  Martin Narey, the Government’s adoption tsar appointed last July, obviously agrees, as it’s an issue he has pledged to tackle.  But the matter of names is just a symptom of a wider problem: that of a current obsession with keeping children in touch with their roots.  Adoption is supposed to help children escape deprived and unstable homes but only if they can get past their troubled origins and be adopted in the first place. And this is where we come to that disaster zone known coyly as ‘the background papers’.  Adoptive parents often think they will get a few pages about the child they are being offered, covering basic information. Instead they get a file the size of the Yellow Pages, full of details that would make your hair stand on end.  For some reason known only to social workers, the reports disclose often unsavoury and unnecessary information that is off-putting to those new to the system and from immaculate homes.  A typical example might read: ‘Chrystal-Mai suffered from nits for 18 months and was excluded from nursery. She misses her daddy who is in jail serving 15 years for distributing paedophile images.’

As the nits would have been treated at the foster carer’s home, why mention them?

And as for Chrystal-Mai’s father it’s not unheard of for men like this to be entitled to regular reports on their child’s development, even after adoption. The Human Rights Act has a lot to answer for.  With contact, there are different rules for each child depending on how reluctant the birth family was to give them up. So while one mother might give birth and do a runner, another mother, or indeed grandmother or auntie, might kick up such a fuss about the adoption that social workers cave in and offer annual meetings or contact by letter.  Again, never mind the child, it’s the birth family’s rights that are deemed to be important.  One couple I came across were on the verge of adopting a six-month-old boy when they discovered that he would have to meet his birth family every year ‘to continue the link with his identity’.  This birth family included crack addicts and criminals, essentially the very people whose behaviour had put him into the care system in the first place.  Similarly alarming is the ‘Letterbox’ system whereby people who adopt a child then have to send regular letters to the birth family via social workers, making it possible for the birth family to identify the child’s whereabouts, especially as children get older and start writing the letters themselves and adding lots of details.  In previous generations, even as recently as the late 1980s, children were adopted and a shutter came down on their past. Background details were sparse and they had to wait until they were 18 to apply for their birth certificate. But since then, the system has changed and not necessarily for the benefit of the child or the adoptive parents.  The rules about keeping birth names and maintaining contact came about after studies showed that when adoptive children grew up, they often expressed a wish to learn about their roots. However, the impact of this move towards greater contact with birth parents has been devastating, deterring potential adoptive parents and often unsettling adopted children.  No wonder people go abroad to adopt. Russia, for instance, has a system which insists that adoptive parents know as little as possible about the background of the child with whom they have been matched. The documents will say: ‘Anastasia was abandoned at six hours old. Her health is good. Her mother signed the adoption forms of her own free will and wanted Anastasia to have a better life than she could offer.’ The end.  The system sounds brutal, and if things don’t work out with an adopted child, a minority of adoptive parents may complain that they were misled. But the system we have at the moment is like picking at an old wound. It cannot be coincidence that one in five adoptions in the UK fails, while the failure rate for overseas adoptions is virtually nil.  The fact that there has been a sharp increase in the number of ‘bedside babies’ in the UK, those taken from their mothers a few hours after birth because she has proved such an unfit mother that her previous children are all in care, could help us to emulate those countries with more successful adoption systems.  Instead of turning up their noses, prospective adopters need to see these children as a blank canvas, an innocent, and be brave enough to look past the dreadful birth name and the background details.  With lots of love and the right guidance, the child will grow into someone any parent could be proud of.  We need to think more about the huge adoption success stories: Kate Adie, the singer Debbie Harry, Education Secretary Michael Gove.  It is my view that adoptive parents should have the right to change the first name of a child if they want to, really awful background details should be toned down and dreadful birth parents should forfeit their parental rights entirely.  The Americans say that any American child has the right to grow up and be President. So, who knows, with a few more common sense rules in the adoption system, little Chardonnay might one day grow up to be Prime Minister. Sadly, as things stand, it’s highly unlikely.

104

Articles / Adoption a 'runaway train often breaching rights of birth parents'

« on: September 03, 2020, 02:34:17 PM »

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/18/adoption-has-become-runaway-train-social-workers-cannot-stop

Adoption a 'runaway train often breaching rights of birth parents'

British Association of Social Workers’ inquiry calls for ‘significant rethink’ of adoption law

Amelia Hill
@byameliahill
Thu 18 Jan 2018 18.08 GMT

Last modified on Fri 19 Jan 2018 08.41 GMT

Adoption has become a “runaway train” impossible for individual social workers to stop, according to an independent inquiry into adoption law in the UK.  The exhaustive two-year inquiry, which canvassed evidence from social workers, adult adoptees, adoptive parents and birth parents across the UK, has raised the alarm over practices that favour adoption over alternative care options seeking to help children stay with their birth parents.  The British Association of Social Workers’s (BASW) independent adoption inquiry is the first to investigate the role of social workers in adoption with a focus on ethics and human rights and has called for a significant rethink and review of adoption law.  The UK has the highest number of adoptions in Europe and is one of just three EU countries that allow forced or non-consensual adoptions where children are adopted against the wishes of their birth parents. The inquiry examined these issues and looked at our rationale for being the only country in Europe to have a uniform rule forbidding any direct contact between adopted children and their birth and foster families.  Ruth Allen, chief executive for BASW, said: “Adoption can be highly successful, providing children with stable, loving homes and adoptive parents with the experience of creating the family they want. Birth families may consent to adoption and recognise the value to their biological child.  However, the inquiry explores the complex realities of adoption for many people, particularly in non-consensual adoption, with mixed outcomes and experiences for all involved, which raise questions about what the report calls a dominant ‘happy ever after’ narrative.”

At the inquiry’s launch on Thursday night, a mother who had her children taken from her at birth said there were no support services, preventive help or children’s centres available to help her cope, and that most were being closed because of funding cuts.  Social workers said the adoption process was not working and that there was not enough post-adoptive support for birth or adoptive families.  There was also call for government to not only fund the system properly but to be more open over its data. “The government needs to supply a breakdown of figures so we can see how many children who are adopted then go back into the care system because of a breakdown with the adoptive family often through lack of post-adoption support which is morally wrong but also doesn’t make sense financially,” said Allen.

Adoption has been promoted by government policy in England in recent years as the best solution for children from vulnerable families. The former prime minister David Cameron and the current environment secretary, Michael Gove, have both publicly supported adoption as a public good and the best decision for children.  But the inquiry painted a far less rosy picture. “Often at the early help-points, a case is seen as an ‘adoption’ case because adoption is so high profile,” one senior social worker said. “[A permanent solution for the child] has been hijacked to [mean] adoption the child’s ‘right’ to adoption. Adoption becomes a ‘runaway train’ and impossible for individual social workers to stop.  Court processes can feel like a ‘fait accompli’ for birth families.”

The inquiry also came to the damning conclusion that “social work’s professional ethics are not routinely and transparently used to inform adoption practice”.

One acute ethical concern repeatedly expressed by experts was that the impact of austerity on wider social policies has directly led to increased rates of adoption among already disadvantaged families.  "The enquiry explored how a rights and ethics perspective is not routinely embedded in social work practice or in statutory guidance,” said Allen. “For example, adoption should never be an intervention primarily for family poverty or because parents have care and support needs that are not being adequately met.  And yet cuts to family support and social work services were a recurring theme with less available for earlier interventions that could support children to stay at home safely.  This means the rights of children and their parents are being breached thanks to austerity measures in public services which continue to undermine preventive and supportive services for families.”

Allen also questioned the grounds for government’s promotion of adoption above other care options. “There is a dearth of information and meaningful longitudinal research to inform policy and social work practice on adoption,” she said. “Without this information, the arguments made for adoption in its current form and current policy are insufficiently evidenced.”

105

Articles / Mum's 'beautiful lockdown baby' dies at 11 days after 'silence in room' at scan

« on: August 31, 2020, 12:32:02 PM »

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mums-beautiful-lockdown-baby-dies-22601464?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=EM_Mirror_Nletter_DailyNews_News_smallteaser_Image_Story2&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&ccid=2369561

Mum's 'beautiful lockdown baby' dies at 11 days after 'silence in room' at scan

Sophie Murfin was determined that her baby daughter Violet's life would be 'have a purpose and be filled with love' despite her short life expectancy

By Cathy Owen & Lucy Skoulding

16:28, 30 AUG 2020 Updated 18:03, 30 AUG 2020

A new mum has sadly lost her lockdown baby daughter just 11 days after she was born, meaning she never even saw rain.  Violet Murfin had a short life but that didn't stop her family fitting as much in as they possibly could.  Violet's mum, Sophie, has shared how Violet's middle name is Ellen, which means 'bright shining light'.  Sophie is forever thankful to the dedicated staff at the hospital where Violet was born, without who a lot of what they were able to do in those precious few days would not have been possible, reports Wales Online.  With their help the newborn baby was able to get back to her Cwmbran home in time to meet her terminally-ill grandmother Liena.  Now Sophie is telling their story as a way of not only thanking the hospital staff but to help other families who need palliative care for their children.  She was told the devastating news that when her daughter was born no-one could predict her life expectancy but it was only likely that she would live for a few hours or weeks.  Sophie, 27, said: "I was having the 20-week scan and there was just silence in the room.  I knew there was something wrong and they admitted that they had spotted something and we were referred to specialists in Bristol.  When we went there I was taken into a room with a box of tissues but we met some amazing staff at the hospital who were fantastic.  I was assured that the condition wouldn’t be painful and she would know nothing different.  They said she was blissfully unaware and there was a nurse who sat with me for hours explaining everything so clearly and answering all my questions.  It was still scary and I found that were very few palliative stories shared by parents but no-one said how truly wonderful the time with her would be."

Sophie described how she was encouraged to name her baby and to write a list of things she wanted to do during the pregnancy.  "I didn’t realise the importance or significance of this but by referring to her by name the team showed us that, to them, we mattered," she said.

"I still wanted to enjoy my pregnancy, I was still going to be a mum, and they really encouraged me to make the most of the time.  But I had to accept that Violet was never going to grow up, never going to play sport, but I needed her to have a purpose."

A few weeks before the scan the family had received more bad news when Sophie's grandmother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and only given a few months to live. It was unlikely she would survive until Violet's due date in May.

Sophie said: "With the help of the cardiology team in St Michael’s plans were made. I’m so grateful to our nurse, Jess, for keeping me sane.  Together we decided that I should write a bucket list and the team would help me to fulfil it. For now, though, I was going to enjoy my pregnancy and they would monitor Violet’s condition.  I had regular appointments with the fetal medicine, cardiology, obstetrics, NICU, and palliative care teams, who were all as determined as I was to get Violet home to meet her great-grandma bucket list points one and two. I was completely floored by their kindness."

An induction was planned so the teams were prepared for the birth and Sophie wouldn't end up giving birth on the side of the road between Cwmbran and Bristol.  "We didn’t really know what to expect when she was born but I was prepared for the worst scenarios. I accepted that she may be born blue and quiet but I really hoped that this wouldn’t be the case," said Sophie. "What I didn’t expect her to be born on a bank holiday in the middle of a pandemic."

On Sunday, May 24, three days before the scheduled induction, Violet entered the world screaming away and a very healthy shade of pink.  An ECG confirmed the diagnosis but, other than her heart, Violet was completely perfect – no wires, medication, or machines were needed.  Sophie and baby Violet were transferred to the Lavender Suite at the hospital, which she says was more like a hotel, and they were under midwife care as it was worked out how to get them home as quickly as possible.  Sophie said: "We had skin to skin time and a camera was provided for us to take photos that were printed to take home for great-grandma to see.  Violet’s condition meant that she could only travel home in an ambulance. Despite their best efforts they were so upset as due to the bank holiday it was unlikely we would get home before Tuesday.  Throughout the day we had regular checks from doctors, giving guidance to keep Violet calm and manage her condition, but she amazed everyone and was just like any healthy newborn.  That evening I received the news I was waiting for we were going home. A team had volunteered their time to make sure that we could get home in time. I can clearly remember the look on the midwife’s face the PPE couldn’t hide the glimmer in her eyes.  It was obvious that she was beaming and completely over the moon."

On the Monday morning Sophie and Violet had a final check-up from the medical team. Violet was bundled up into what Sophie described as a baby bobsled and put in the back of the ambulance. She couldn't go in a car as Violet had to be lying down flat for the journey.  She said: "The entire team had volunteered to get us home to south Wales I couldn’t believe it, their kindness was humbling.  Against all the odds, during a pandemic, we managed to get baby Violet home to meet her great-grandma and have four generations at home under one roof.  The minute we got through the door I took Violet up to meet my grandmother. It was such a special moment."

The family then set about making the most of their time with baby Violet.  Sophie said: "The time at home with Violet was wonderful. The sun shone every day of her life she never once saw rain. We managed an awful lot in 11 days.  We were both christened in the garden, with family and friends on Zoom.  Neighbours watched from a distance accompanied by a dog, two cats, and a hedgehog it was like a real-life Disney film.  We clapped for carers, went to the park, celebrated Gran’s birthday, and had a photoshoot in the garden. Bucket list complete."

Violet passed away peacefully in Sophie's mother's arms on Wednesday, June 3, just three hours after her great-grandmother had died.  Now Sophie is sharing Violet's story to give some comfort to other parents in a similar situation while she is also raising money for team at the hospital that gave them so much love and support.  The proud mum said: "I’m sharing Violet’s story to give some comfort to other parents in this situation palliative care for a baby can be simply wonderful.  To say thank you to the staff at St Michael’s Hospital I’m aiming to raise as much money as I can so that they can continue to help other babies like Violet and support families like ours.  It is how grateful we are for what they did for us, their selfless actions, reassurance and kindness, gave us the most precious gift time."

She added: "Thanks to the help of the team at Bristol we were able to be together, as a family, at home.  I was determined that Violet’s life would have a purpose and be filled with love. I truly believe that Violet was loaned to us to teach us a lesson, to show us to look for the good things in ourselves and to see the kindness of people around us.  I wouldn’t change a single thing about our story but I wish we could go back to page one and do it all over again."