Mrs Peacocks StoryMy name is Janet. For many years I worked in the village store and got to know many of the regulars. Mrs Peacock was one of these. She was exceptionally short, but not a dwarf. I remember seeing her coming up the road with her three children, her head at the level of the handle of her pushchair. Life was a bit of a struggle for her. Her husband was normal height but very thin build. He was out of work; not that unusual at the time in this village. I knew from chatting to her that she had a social worker. She had gone to the pub one Saturday with her husband and left her children alone and had been reported by a neighbour. Her eldest child, a girl, was eight at the time. One day she popped into the shop on the way back from the doctor. Her eldest girl had suffered persistent cystitis, and the doctor had referred her to a consultant at the local hospital. She was glad that something was being done at last, being unaware of just how her life was to unravel from that moment on. She came in again on the morning of her hospital appointment. I heard a day later what had happened. The consultant paediatrician had decided that the child was being sexually abused and the three children were taken into care immediately. Mrs Peacock was told that she could have them back if she left her husband. Knowing that her husband was innocent, and no doubt overwhelmed at the thought of managing three children without him, she refused. The children were placed in foster care in the village, and Mrs. Peacock was allowed to visit three times a week. The foster carer was also a regular, and told me in confidence that it was an appalling case. That Mrs. Peacock had watched while her husband sexually abused all three children. She also said how distressed the children were when their mother visited, and how difficult it was for her to allow this evil woman to visit. At this point you are probably thinking what a good job that Social Services and the consultant were doing. Well, lets look at what happened next. Mrs. Peacock got a solicitor provided for her, a "wonderful man", who assured her that she would win the case. When the case for a permanent care order came to Court, all charges of sexual abuse were dropped, and only a case of neglect was used. She lost. She had her children put up for adoption soon afterwards, and has now lost them permanently. Then she moved away, having been ostracised by the rest of the village. One more part to this story. A consultant paediatrician was subsequently suspended, and later dismissed for making unfounded accusations of sexual abuse against children. She had made a total of forty such accusations, but had foolishly made the last one against a family doctor; someone who would not take this accusation lying down. All of these accusations would have been handled by the same Social service department. Editor's Analysis The thing to note in this story is the fact that all charges of sexual abuse were dropped. The conclusion to be drawn is that they could not find an expert witness, or any other evidence, to support the allegations. They had a case for neglect, but as far as Janet was aware, they had already investigated this case and had appointed a Social Worker, probably having put the children on the at risk register. Was this decision wrong at the time? There was never any mention of additional concerns about their care. One is led to the conclusion that even though they could not assemble evidence of sexual abuse, remembering that this evidence only has to cross a 50% threshold to be accepted, they still believed it without question. So they used the previous evidence instead to move the children to adoption! The other issue is what the foster carer believed. Clearly, she should never have shared these beliefs, but where did she get these beliefs from. If there had been any factual basis, they would have been used in Court to secure a case of sexual abuse. One is led to believe that the foster carer was primed by Social Workers to believe these facts even though they had no validity whatsoever. The final line of the story makes one think that both Mr. and Mrs. Peacock was entirely innocent of any sexual abuse, their lives shattered by the incompetence of a single person. With no chance of redress.
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