On the afternoon that Sarah’s daughters were taken away from her, they had been due to go to a paddling-pool party. It was July 2020 and, with the easing of lockdown restrictions in England, the girls – then nine and six – were excited about seeing their friends again after months apart. Sarah had just bought them matching swimsuits: blue with sequin unicorns.
But the girls never made it to the party. Three days before, Sarah had received a call from her solicitor. Both of her girls could be removed from her with immediate effect.
Her children’s social workers, teachers and other professionals with whom they were in contact had seen no problem with her parenting. The girls had spent lockdown with their mother “doing maths and fishing for tadpoles. They were safe and happy.” The person who had “diagnosed” Sarah was an unregulated psychologist, Melanie Gill, whom at one point the judge wrongly referred to as “Dr”, although she had never attained any qualifications that merit that title.
Gill has a third-class degree in psychology and a diploma in child forensic studies, which she was awarded instead of a master’s degree because she did not finish her dissertation. Sarah attended an urgent court hearing via a video call on the morning of the party. On the basis of Gill’s evidence, the judge told her that her daughters would have to live with their father and that she had two hours to get them ready to leave.
Instead of the paddling pool that afternoon, she told them they would be going on a “two-week holiday with Daddy”. When their father arrived, the children refused to go with him. All the neighbours came out to see what was happening.
That was more than six years ago. Apart from two brief occasions, Sarah has not seen her daughters unsupervised since. Most of the contact has happened fortnightly in public places such as hotel lounges.
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