Contact: Anne Neale or Tracey Norton, Support Not Separation sns@legalactionforwomen.net  

We will be outside the Old Bailey on Monday 25 & Tuesday 26 March at 9am as mothers supporting Constance Marten because many of us have experienced the brutality of the family courts which steal our children. Over 82,000 children are currently in “care” and thousands are forcibly adopted each year – 90% of adoptions are without the consent of the natural parents. The tragedy and lifelong trauma of wrenching children from their family, first of all for the children, and for their mothers, is never recognised. Yet mothers are the first protectors, and children without a mother are vulnerable to every abuse.    

Ms Marten gave evidence that when her first child was born, she had nowhere to live so she asked social services for help:

and that was probably the worst decision…having gone through the system of social services I don’t believe they are there to help parents, or children for that matter. [our emphasis]

Our experience with thousands of mothers also tells us that family courts are not there for us or our children. Instead, they are feeding a privatised child removal industry which disregards the bond between mother and child, profiteering from the torture they impose — local authorities are being quoted as much as £50,000 a week (£2.6m a year) for one child in “care”.[1] No wonder councils are going bankrupt while many mothers whose children are removed are driven to suicide. 

Ms Marten’s first two children were removed, it seems because of an incident interpreted as possible domestic violence. But we understand that she has never reported domestic violence. Our experience, backed by research, shows that once mothers have one child removed social services expect to remove every subsequent child. Predictably, Ms Marten’s third and fourth children were taken at birth. In this context, who wouldn’t go on the run to try to protect their baby with whom they have already bonded after 9 months in the womb? 

The government’s own Harm Report[2] noted that mothers in family court face “racism, sexism and class bias”. We know that thousands of children are taken NOT on the basis of evidence of actual harm but on the “probability” or “possibility” of “future emotional harm”. Children of colour and from low-income families are the likeliest to be targeted.

Thousands of women who do report domestic violence and/or rape get no protection. But when social workers decide there has been domestic violence, the mother gets blamed for “failing to protect” the children and they are taken into care without any concern for the trauma inflicted on them by this separation. And when mothers ask the family court for protection from domestic violence or child abuse by the father, they are accused of “parental alienation” and the children are forced to see or even live with their abuser. That’s why so many mothers fleeing domestic violence have fled to Northern Cyprus (which has no extradition agreement with the UK) to protect their children from being handed over to the men they fear. 

Instead of understanding and compassion, traumatised mothers who have lost their babies, as Ms Marten has, face criminalisation. How cruel! The trial of Constance Marten highlights the desperation she and many mothers feel and our determination to protect our children. Separating children from loving mothers is child abuse. As mothers, our hearts go out to her. Stop stealing our children!

15 March 2024, updated 21 March 2024

---

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/18/english-councils-pay-1m-per-child-for-places-in-private-childrens-homes

[2] https://supportnotseparation.blog/2020/07/02/key-findings-of-the-government-review-into-how-the-family-courts-deal-with-domestic-violence/