Mum loses out in fight for her son

A 25-year-old Oldham mum was told yesterday that her efforts to change her life had come too late to ever have a chance of getting her two-year-old son back.

The woman, who can’t be named to protect the child’s identity, made an emotional plea to a top family judge.

She sobbed as she told Lord Justice Ward that she had not had a fair hearing last October, when an order taking her son into care and placing him for adoption was made.

The mother said that she had been in a psychiatric hospital prior to that court hearing, at Oldham’s Family Court, and had not been in the right frame of mind to make any decisions. But Lord Justice Ward, sitting at London’s Civil Appeal Court, said the case in favour of adoption was “overwhelming” and the correct way to proceed.

He told the woman she had made her submissions to him “passionately, eloquently and heartbreakingly,” but that the positive steps she had taken towards changing her “chaotic” life had come too late.

Addressing her concerns about her state of mind at the hearing, he said: “If she was unwell, a guardian would have been appointed for her, but her disability was never so grave as to reduce her to that state.”

He said the mother had tried to adjourn proceedings at the Oldham Family Court so that an assessment of her mental health could be carried out, but this had been refused.

A judge at Manchester County Court also refused her permission in January, this year.

Lord Justice Ward said those decisions were correct, and that both court hearings had been conducted in a “careful and sympathetic” manner.

Describing the case as “distressing”, the judge said: “If I were to give permission to appeal for every litigant I feel desperately sorry for, I would be granting permission to everyone.

“The sadness for me is that this mother has demonstrated she is a loving mother and does have an ability to look after her child.

“She had lived a chaotic lifestyle, mainly due to the pernicious influence of the man who inflicted violence on her, and she has made great steps towards improving her position.

“The tragedy is that all of that has come too late for this little boy to be returned to her.

“If sympathy was the Litmus test for granting permission, I would give it.”

He refused the sobbing mother permission to appeal and told her he was “very sorry” as he left the court.