Tuesday 4 December 2007

Campaign to Stop the Family Court's conducting 'committal proceedings in secret'

Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0589.htm
The public and Parliament are gradually learning about the tragic consequences of the epidemic of false and incorrect evidence given by ‘public officials’ ( social workers, paediatricians, psychologists, police officers, etc) in Family Court cases, resulting in children wrongly being taken into Care and then given away for adoption, to strangers. What isn’t so well known is that the Family Courts harbour another guilty secret. A huge number of innocent and vulnerable members of the public have been, and continue to be imprisoned, after ‘secret trials’ in the Family Courts. This is completely wrong, illegal and runs counter to one of the most basic principles of justice in a democracy; “ justice must be seen to be done”. On 13 June 2006, Harriet Harman MP QC, the Justice Minister, in a Parliamentary reply to Sally Keeble MP ( Northampton, North ) confirmed that “ in the last year, something like 200 people were sent to prison by the Family Courts, which happens in complete privacy and secrecy”. Note the telling phrase in a Parliamentary reply by the minister, that was meant to be precise! ‘Something like’; because even the Minister does not know the exact figure. It would appear that counting up to 190 or 220 poses a problem for the Justice Department. Indeed, neither does the Home Office keep these figures and deliberately confuses the recording of how many persons have been imprisoned after ‘secret Family Court trials’. The numbers are far far greater than Harriet Harman MP admitted in Parliament and even the Home Office figures of those imprisoned in jails would not include those members of the public held in police cells after being arrested. Many of these persons would have been arrested and detained for over 24 hours. Many would have been subsequently released without charge. Nonetheless they would have lost their freedom, been aggressively treated and seriously inconvenienced; yet must remain mute! They are sworn to secrecy, to protect the corrupt system. The whole purpose of these summary arrests is to rough up the public at the behest of social workers or ill informed police officers, to intimidate and frighten the public. (There are documented cases of such conduct ) . Because they are all aware that the public are not allowed to inform the press & media of their experiences. The true figures of those imprisoned after a ‘secret trial’ in the Family Courts would alarm Parliament, the public and the world community generally. Taken together with the huge number of CCTV cameras, the maintenance of Stasi type files by over 400,000 ‘public officials’ and the almost continual surveillance of the public, especially families; Britain is very close to becoming an official police state under this Labour Government. It is fundamental principle of democracy that the ‘rule of law’ is observed by independent sentinels; universally accepted as the press and media. The procedures and protocols of the ‘rule of law’ must be open to scrutiny and reporting. Even the Al- Queida terrorist trials and those at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, are reported by the press and media. However, such is the scandal that has enveloped the Family Courts, that fearful that the huge number of miscarriages of justice will be exposed, were the press to report the truth about these cases, that it has become routine for those parents, grandparents and others who question or complain to the press about documented criminality, breaches of Family Court ‘contact orders’; to be tried ‘secretly’ and then imprisoned. And once imprisoned, all reference to the ‘prisoner’ (parent/ grandparent/campaigner) and the experiences of the ‘prisoner’, including possible further victimisation in prison, also become ‘secret’. Should the ‘prisoner’ attempt suicide or God Fo rbid, commit suicide, this too is covered by secrecy. In fact, no one is allowed to know anything about the ‘prisoner’ or how he/she came to be in prison. The prisoner would be committing a further offence if he/she was to inform other ‘prisoners’ of the reason for his/her imprisonment. And it also affects the ‘prisoner’s’ ability to seek an appeal. Because the Guligans claim that this could result in the identification of the child in the Family Court case. This clever judicial ploy has allowed huge injustices to be concealed. There is a massive effort made to disguise and conceal what is happening in the Family Courts and the disclosure of these ‘secret trials’ exposes an absolutely huge scandal that all concerned with it, wish to conceal. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is considered persona non gratis to a number of world forums and official government meetings. Were the truth about the ‘secret Family Court trials’ revealed, the UK judicial delegations are very likely to be face similar exclusion and ridicule. Hence the attempts to silence all who dare speak out. In early June 2007, Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor and one of Tony Blair’s cronies and flat mate from his student days, was interviewed by the BBC about the Russian request for the extradition from the UK, of Boris Bereshovsky, the Russian businessman who has been given asylum in London. The Russian Government has provided extradition papers and wishes to have Bereshovsky returned to Russia, to face trial for alleged huge financial frauds. The BBC reporter asked Lord Falconer if the British Government would accede to the Russian Government’s request for Bereshovsky extradition. Falconer replied; “we cannot do that. The Russians do not have an open system of justice. Justice must be seen to be done”. On the 20 June 2007, Lord Falconer announced the results of a ‘public consultation’ into the current banning of the media & press from reporting Family Court proceedings. This report had already been twice delayed. He announced without any twinge of embarrassment, that the press were to remain excluded from reporting Family Court proceedings and that the ‘secrecy’ was to increase and the penalties for breaching the ‘secrecy’ were to be made even more draconian. He stated that he based his decision on the responses from children, to the ‘public consultation’. However, though Lord Falconer has been challenged to show the evidence; he has not been able to produce the evidence. This because there is no evidence that the children he referred to, did voice such opinions. The public consultation ‘organised’ by the Department of Constitutional Affairs, like much about Tony Blair’s Government, was laced with spin and misleading information. There is irrefutable evidence that social workers, lawyers and the others involved with the secret Gulag that is the Family Courts and who benefit from a judicial system bereft of independent scrutiny and accountability, pulled the wool of the eyes of a complicit Lord Falconer, to avoid the press and media exposing the huge Family Court scandal.

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