Court of Appeal rules the 3 Sara Sharif judges can be identified next week.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

And judges were happy to name Metropolitan Police officer Martyn Blake who pleaded not guilty to murdering Chris Kaba and was found not guilty, but they don’t want to be named themselves.

Double standards?

It does look like double standards

Most children do not talk to anyone about the abuse they experience. Many reasons, fear, threats or family loyalty. It seems that the father appeared a more stable parent than the mother who had cared for Sara previously. Wrongly,of course, but if bruises etc were satisfactorily explained away and if she appeared to be ok and the family caring, there is little any social or other support worker can do.
The school described Sara as a confident girl, and certainly old enough to articulate any
problems, so if she didn’t, wouldn’t or couldn't, then a conference with agreement of education, police and any others involved with the family, decides that the the case should be closed and the worker is allocated the next case on an ever increasing waiting list.
It’s a tragedy, that home, for some unfortunate children, can be the most dangerous place to be, instead of the safe loving place it should be.

Heartbreaking summary silverlining.
Thank you for expressing this so well and sensitively.

Yes there is. This judge made a very wrong decision in returning Sara to her father, against the advice of the social workers and the foster parents who cared for her. I hope there will be professional investigations into his reasoning too.

Anniebach

What can be gained by naming them ?

Nothing, it's not going to change things, and they have anonymity for a reason, for there safety.

eazybee, according to the Guardian, an inexperienced social worker recommended that Sara be put into the care of her father. There are few judges who would go against the advice of a social worker.

Even an ‘inexperienced one’ maddyone?
Maybe that’s part of a wider problem.

Visits are made, assessments done, workloads too onerous, follow ups missed or not scheduled. Workers leave/retire/move on, caseloads are not robustly handed over. Multi-disciplinary teams don’t share information adequately.

It seems a hot crazy mess.

Assume Sara would have had a guardian ad litem to speak in court on her behalf, whose recommendation would be taken seriously.
Sara too will also have been spoken to privately by the judge. She would have been asked where and with whom she preferred to live and her response would have been taken seriously. I assume that Sara chose her father.
There is a lot that goes on in a court case, and we outsiders can’t know every detail, so don’t have the full facts to judge.

Yes FGT, I think that’s exactly right. I did a quick google search which brought up the Guardian article, but my feelings are exactly the same as yours. As I said upthread, it does all depend on the evidence that is presented to the judge/judges (I’m unsure why there were three judges in this case) and judges can only make a judgment on the evidence that they hear.
There were multiple failings in this case, which eventually caused this poor little girl to lose her life in an abhorrent manner.
The main reason though is that her father is/was a vile bully.

silverlining48

Assume Sara would have had a guardian ad litem to speak in court on her behalf, whose recommendation would be taken seriously.
Sara too will also have been spoken to privately by the judge. She would have been asked where and with whom she preferred to live and her response would have been taken seriously. I assume that Sara chose her father.
There is a lot that goes on in a court case, and we outsiders can’t know every detail, so don’t have the full facts to judge.

Exactly silverlining.

The difficulty is, of course, as everyone has said, that these abusive people can be exceptionally good at manipulation.
There was a case a few years ago, of a child removed from her violent father, and non protective mother. The grandparents cared for her devotedly for quite some time.
The father kicked up a huge fuss, including appearances on television, saying how wronged he had been.
An appeal judge handed her back to her parents, with apologies for their mis- treatment at the hands of social workers and the judiciary.
The child was dead, at her father's hands, within the year.

There’s an old saying … “even a bad parent is a good parent - to a child”.
😢

Silverlining has shown to me how easy it was to reach what we now know was profoundly the wrong decision. Named or not, I see no gain in seeking to blame the judges in retrospect.

What we have, as pointed out above, is a system not able to adequately meet the needs of children at the moment, and it has been that way for some considerable time.

It will take a good deal of repairing, but I also feel that we should offer those who day after day Do get things right for children our thanks and support, for all we hear is when things go wrong.

I don't see any benefit in naming the judges. What I would like to know, though, is do family court judges receive any specific training about how to avoid being manipulated by abusive parents? Do they have in depth interviews with the parents? If all they do is follow advice given to them by social workers what are they there for?

woodenspoon

People feel that by hiding under the cloak of anonymity means a lack of accountability. That’s part of it. Also, if these judges make catastrophic errors in their judgements the fact they will be named may make some focus their minds and a different result may happen. It would be better if they were removed from their duties. I’m not sure naming them is the answer. Accountability is.

It would be better if they were removed from their duties

I'm inclined to agree.
They do need to be accountable and at the moment the Family Courts seem accountable to no-one.

Family Court receive a lot of training, both before they begin to make judgements, and then ongoing training afterwards. They receive all the information before the case comes to court so that they can read about the case, and then they hear further evidence and statements in court. They normally deliver their judgment days, or weeks after the court case.

Why are the Family Courts accountable to no one?
All judgements can be appealed. Who should judges be accountable to?

Judges should be accountable to the public as they serve the public.

Accountable to a system within the judiciary, the public, decisions can be appealed, and complaints can be lodged.

2 out of the 3 judges are retired now.

I don't imagine there is a single family court judge unaware of this case and its consequences.

Really? What a coincidence.

Family Court judges, like all other judges, are accountable to senior judges. There are several layers of judge seniority. They are also accountable to The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office which supports the Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice.
But primarily judges are accountable through the appeal process, where judgements are looked at again, and sometimes a new judgment is made through appeal.

Barleyfields

Really? What a coincidence.

Yes really checked out in 2 news sources including sky

The FCS needs a complete overhaul. Having been though it I know it is not fit for purpose. There needs to be greater transparency. At the moment judges go on the recommendations of Caffcass almost without question. To be honest once the cafcass report has been written the judges have little to do but rubber stamp it. The judges may as well not be there...

I thought all that stuff was in the public domain. I have never heard of judges being given anonymity. Sounds very dodgy to me.

Family court has been allowed to have journalists present as part of a pilot scheme which I believe is being rolled out elsewhere.

I think it is not much more than a token gesture though, as the media won't pay staff to go sit in on these cases.

People attending family court are warned not to breach confidentiality so no one is allowed to discuss details with anyone.

They are very pressurised and secretive places. If people were allowed in they would be shocked.