David Boyle on child abuse by the authorities

I wrote the other day of the virtues of waiting until another blogger has expressed this ideas that you have in your own mind. In that case it was Tim Worstall, and now David Boyle has done the same.

On The Real Blog, David expresses concern at the case of the mother who had her child taken away because she hit hit on the arm with a hairbrush because he wouldn’t get dressed for school. As he says:

the mother who snapped has finally been given a 12-month community order. They have taken her child away (he’s eight) and say he may be allowed to come home once the sentence is over (by which time he'll be nine). Nor is she allowed to discuss it with him on their two-hour weekly permitted meetings.

It seems to me quite extraordinary, brutal even, that this ever came to court. There has been no suggestion that the child is in danger, or that the mother (who has just had a breast removed) is a danger to children.

David emphasises that he does not want to encourage the hitting of children. No more do I - though I once wrote that an outright ban on smacking would inevitably be enforced in an uneven and arbitrary way - and I think David is entirely right to hold and express these concerns.

Unfortunately, he has neglected to write the second half of my posting, so I shall have to do it myself. I had intended to write about this case, and contrast it with what happened to Adam Rickwood.

Adam hanged himself, aged 14, in 2004 at Hassockfield secure training centre in Consett, County Durham. He took his life just six hours after being forcibly restrained by four adult guards and subjected to a "nose distraction technique" in which pressure is applied to the nose with the deliberate intention of causing pain.

He left a letter to his family in which he said:

"My nose started bleeding and swelled up. It didn't stop bleeding for about one hour and afterwards it was swelled badly and really sore and hurting me a lot.

"When I calmed down, I asked them why they hit me in the nose and jumped on me. They said it was because I wouldn't go to my room so I said what gives them the right to hit a 14-year-old child in the nose and draw blood and they said it was a restraint."

The use of this technique upon Adam was later found to be "clearly unlawful". But the contrast between the two cases does point to an overmighty state that allows itself to use violence against children while acting without mercy against a mother who does something far less serious.